Islamic State’s mouthpiece, the Al Naba newspaper, has published an editorial about the deadly attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall last Friday.
Journalist and Middle East expert Ruslan Suleymanov posted a screenshot from the newspaper on his Telegram channel on Friday, adding that according to Al Naba, three of the gunmen had been tasked with shooting at concertgoers, while another attacker set fire to the building.
After failing to prevent the attack, the Russian authorities now had “no other choice” but to blame the West, Al Naba wrote, adding that Russia had “a strong interest in interrogating captives in a way that serves political conflicts with its adversaries.”
Suleymanov stressed that IS did not attribute the Moscow concert hall attack to ISIS-K, its branch in Afghanistan. In its weekly report, IS claimed ISIS-K fighters killed or injured 44 people. Russia is shown in a separate column, where IS claimed to have killed or injured 500 people.
On 22 March, multiple armed men entered Crocus City Hall, an entertainment complex in suburban Moscow, and opened fire at people gathered for a concert. At least 144 people were killed in the shooting and the ensuing fire that engulfed the building. Eight suspects, including the four suspected gunmen, have been remanded in custody in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the Crocus City Hall attack was carried out by “radical Islamists” but implied that Ukraine and the West played a part in organising it, questioning why Islamists would target Russia, which “advocates for a just resolution of the escalating conflict in the Middle East”.