Russia says 40 dead, 145 injured in concert hall raid; Islamic State group claims responsibility
apnews.com
Russia’s Federal Security Service says over 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in an attack at a Moscow concert hall.

Assailants burst into a large concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing over 60 people, injuring more than 100 and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies had learned the group’s branch in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow and shared the information with Russian officials.

It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the attackers after the raid, which state investigators were investigating as terrorism.

The attack, which left the concert hall in flames with a collapsing roof, was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country’s war in Ukraine dragged into a third year. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the raid a “huge tragedy.”

  • phoneymouse@lemmy.world
    43·
    9 months ago

    This is interesting, especially since we haven’t heard much from ISIS in several years and that the US warned Russia about it ahead of time.

    Now, I’ll just speculate.

    The US was helping Ukraine. Then Iran backed an attack by Hamas on Israel, which gave the US a distraction to deal with from supporting Ukraine. There was speculation that Russia pushed Iran to push Hamas to do the attack for this very reason.

    Now, US intelligence could be playing the same game. With this attack, Russia has a hard time selling Ukraine as the biggest threat to Russian people. They’re under attack by ISIS terrorists. Surely, this will take some focus off of the Ukraine war and put pressure on Putin to counter ISIS. Somehow the US did have foreknowledge of the attack…

    Of course this is all just speculation, but if we’re trying to think like covert ops and play 4D chess, it could make sense.

    • fuckingkangaroos@lemm.ee
      2·
      9 months ago

      There was speculation that Russia pushed Iran to push Hamas to do the attack for this very reason.

      I’ve wondered about this since it happened. The Kremlin has certainly benefited.

    • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
      31·
      9 months ago

      Well except Iran didn’t push Hamas, in fact their reaction to the war seems to indicate that they’re privately wanting to choke the life out of Hamas for what they did because they wanted to arrange a full court press with all their chess pieces moving at once instead of Hamas charging in causing Israel to harden even further

      If this was an Iran backed move, you’d have seen Iraq basically lighting itself on fire, Syria moving on the Golan Heights, Hezbollah launching attacks on Israel’s north and also their desalination plants, the Houthis launching strikes against KSA’s oil infrastructure, all while Iran closes the straight of Hormuz.

      They’ve been setting this board since the revolution and they don’t want to move any of the pieces until they are at peak assurance that they’ll walk away with complete hegemony over the middle east at least as far as the East Mediterranean Coast at the end of it all.