MOSCOW (AP) – Russian authorities have arrested four men suspected of attacking a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow that killed at least 133 people. President Vladimir Putin He spoke in an address to the nation on Saturday. They claimed to have been captured while fleeing to Ukraine.
Kiev has strongly denied any involvement in Friday's attack on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, with the Islamic State's Afghan branch claiming responsibility.
Putin did not mention IS in his speech, and Kiev has recently accused Putin and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the attack in an effort to stir up enthusiasm for Russia's war in Ukraine. denounced. I'm in my third year.
A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. government agencies had confirmed responsibility for the attack by Islamic State and had warned Moscow in advance that an attack could be imminent.
President Putin said authorities had arrested a total of 11 people in the attack, which also injured many concertgoers and left the venue in smoldering ruins. He called it a “bloody and barbaric act of terrorism” and said Russian authorities had arrested four armed suspects who were attempting to flee into Ukraine through a “window” on the Ukrainian side of the border.
Putin also said additional security measures were being imposed across Russia and declared Sunday a day of mourning.
attack, Russia's deadliest The incident, the first in years, was a major embarrassment for Russia's leadership and came just days after the president took office. tightened his grip The vote, which followed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times, gave the country another six years in office.
Some commentators on Russian social media wondered how the authorities, which have brutally suppressed rebel activity and silenced independent media, could have prevented the attack despite warnings from the United States. I wondered if it wasn't there.
The attack came as the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a notice asking Americans to avoid crowded places in light of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts. It happened two weeks after. This warning was echoed by several other Western embassies.
Investigators were combing through the charred remains of the venue Saturday looking for more victims, and authorities said the death toll could still rise. Hundreds of people lined up to donate blood and plasma in Moscow early Saturday, Russia's Health Ministry said.
“We faced not only a carefully and cynically prepared terrorist attack, but also a well-prepared and organized mass killing of peaceful innocent people,” Putin said.
His assertion that the attackers had sought refuge in Ukraine followed comments by Russian lawmakers who condemned Ukraine shortly after the attack. However, Mykhailo Podlyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, denied any involvement.
“Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist means. Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield,” he posted on X.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry accused the Russian government of using the attack to inflame enthusiasm for war.
“We believe that such accusations will further fuel anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Russian society, create a situation that will increase the mobilization of Russian citizens to participate in criminal aggression against our country, and undermine Ukraine's credibility in the eyes of the international community. “We believe this is a planned provocation by the Kremlin to bring down the community,” the ministry said in a statement.
A massive fire is seen over Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 22, 2024. (Sergei Vedyashkin/Moscow News Agency, via AP)
Images shared by Russian state media on Saturday show a still-emergency building outside the ruins of Crocus Town Hall, which can accommodate more than 6,000 people and has hosted many major events, including the 2013 Miss Universe beauty pageant. Vehicles were seen gathering together. donald trump others.
On Friday, a crowd gathered for a concert by the Russian rock band Picnic.
Videos posted online showed gunmen inside the venue shooting civilians at close range. Russian news reports, citing authorities and witnesses, said the attackers threw explosives, starting a fire that eventually gutted the building and caused the roof to collapse.
Dave Primoff, who survived the attack, described the chaos to the AP as concertgoers scrambled to exit the building. “People panicked and started running, crashing into each other. Some fell, others trampled.”
Messages of anger, shock and support for the victims and their families have poured in from around the world.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council condemned the “heinous and despicable terrorist attack” and stressed the need to hold perpetrators accountable. UN Secretary-General António Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms”, the spokesperson said.
The Islamic State group, which lost much of its strength following Russia's military operations in Syria, has long targeted Russia. Islamic State's Afghanistan branch said in a statement published by the group's Amaq news agency that it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk.
A terrorist bombing occurred in October 2015. planted by IS It shot down a Russian airliner over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russians on vacation from Egypt.
A massive fire is seen over Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, on Friday, March 22, 2024. (Sergei Vedyashkin/Moscow News Agency, via AP)
The group operates primarily in Syria and Iraq, but also Afghanistan and Africa, and claims to have carried out several attacks in Russia's volatile Caucasus and other regions in the past few years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
On March 7, Russia's top security agency thwarted an attack by IS cells on a synagogue in Moscow and killed several people in the Kaluga region near the Russian capital, hours before the US embassy warned of an impending attack. It was announced that members of the group had been killed. A few days earlier, Russian authorities announced that six suspected IS members were killed in a gunfight in Ingushetia, Russia's Caucasus region.
A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies have been gathering information in recent weeks that an Islamic State affiliate was planning an attack on Moscow, and that U.S. officials shared that information with Russian authorities earlier this month. He said that he had privately shared the information with others.
Russian Rosguardia (National Guard) military personnel secure the area of Crocus City Hall in the western edge of Moscow, Russia, Saturday, March 23, 2024. (Alexander Avilov/Moscow News Agency, via AP)
Another U.S. official said the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan has been targeting Russia for years and reiterated that no Ukrainians were involved in the attack.
Both officials were briefed on the matter but were not authorized to publicly discuss intelligence information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Just three days before the attack, President Putin had publicly denounced Western warnings of a possible terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. “These are all akin to public intimidation, an attempt to terrorize and destabilize society,” he told a meeting with top security officials.
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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington and Colleen Long in Wilmington, Delaware, contributed to this report.
