Islamic State (IS) has released a photo of what it claimed were the four gunmen behind the shooting at a Moscow concert venue that killed at least 133 people.
Amaq, a news agency affiliated to IS, was cited by Reuters as saying that the Moscow attack “comes within the context of a raging war between Islamic State and countries fighting Islam”.
IS claimed responsibility for the attack in Moscow earlier on Saturday, calling it “the fiercest attack in years”, according to SITE, a US intelligence group that tracks the online activity of extremist organisations.
Russian officials have not confirmed IS involvement in the attack, implicating Ukraine in the attack instead, with Russian President Vladimir Putin suggesting on Saturday that Ukraine had organised a “window” through which the attackers could cross from Russia into Ukraine.
Russian independent media outlet The Insider noted that the men shown in the picture were dressed in the same clothes as the suspected perpetrators, footage of whose interrogation was released by the Russian security services earlier in the day after they were apprehended by police after fleeing into the forest to evade arrest.
Telegram channel BRIEF posted a picture comparing the attackers’ clothing with the photo posted by IS.
Photo: BRIEF Telegram channel
One of the men detained in the western Russian Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, said that he had been promised 500,000 rubles (€5,000) for carrying out the attack and had been receiving instructions via Telegram.
