IS attack on Moscow
Wissal Khlifi, Department of translation and Interpreting. 25-03-2024
With 137 confirmed deaths so far of the IS (Islamic State) attack on Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall, and with the death toll still rising as emergency workers are still searching for bodies, Russia is still mourning its loss over what experts claim to be the “deadliest hit claimed by IS on European Soil”.
The unfortunate attack took place this past Friday evening where attackers entered the concert hall to keep shooting civilians for nearly an hour to then set the whole venue on fire. Since then, things escalated fast, leading to the arrest of four Tajikistan suspects facing court on Sunday, pleading guilty to being involved.
Why would IS target Russia?
The attack on Russia has practical, historical and ideological reasons behind it.
Russia has been in the cross-hairs of IS for many years. IS leaders, like many Islamic militants, are mindful of Russian support for the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. A key point made by IS propaganda from Pakistan to Nigeria is that Moscow is part of the broader coalition of Christian or western forces engaged in an existential, 1,400-year-old battle against Islam.
IS statements claiming responsibility for the attack boasted of “killing Christians”.
Leaders of ISKP (Islamic State Khorasan Province) may also see Russia as supportive of the continued rule of the Taliban, which has repressed them. They will also remember brutal Soviet military operations in Afghanistan in the 1980s and “the Jihad” waged by their fathers or grandfathers against Moscow’s forces. Russia’s bloody war in Chechnya in 1999 may be a factor too.
How will Russia respond?
Russian authorities’ interrogation of the suspects appears to have been particularly brutal.
Videos circulating of their interrogations suggest that the men were tortured; one of the videos appears to show members of the security forces cutting off the ear of a suspect and then stuffing it into his mouth.
In court, all of the suspects appeared heavily bruised with swollen faces. One of them was brought to court directly from hospital in a wheelchair. He was attended by medics and was seen with multiple cuts.
Putin has vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack” – and Muslim minorities in Russia are likely to face a wave of repression.
In the Russian ruler’s only public remarks on the massacre he made no reference to IS’s claims of responsibility.
Instead, despite IS claiming the attack and releasing footage to corroborate those claims, Russia has still sought to place some blame on Ukraine.
On Saturday, Putin claimed without evidence that the four arrested gunmen planned to flee to Ukraine. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said Putin and others close to him are seeking to divert the blame from Russian intelligence failings.
