‘ISIS attack’ kills 143 civilians in Moscow

ALLEGED members of the Islamic State (ISIS) attacked a packed concert hall just outside of Moscow last March 22, 2024, that gutted the building, left 143 civilians dead, many from gunshot wounds, and over 100 more wounded.

The attack was the bloodiest on Russian soil since the October 23, 2002, ‘Dubrovka Moscow Theater hostage crisis,’ staged by Chechen separatists where 121 of the 132 killed hostages were Russian citizens.

The initial casualty reports coming from Russia put the number of dead at over 60 people, before the final tally reached 143, by Wednesday, March 27, according to Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Services (Emercom).

Before fleeing, the 4 heavily armed attackers also threw incendiaries at the ‘Crocus City Hall’ concert hall in Krasnogorsk, resulting to a huge fire that ultimately caused its roof to collapse.

The attackers, after their arrest, were later identified as being recruited via ‘Telegram’ from the Republic of Tajikistan, a country in Central Asia, and offered 500,000 rubles and cryptocurrency by their yet-to-be-unidentified “contractor/s” to kill as many civilians as they can.

US quick to shield Ukraine from the crime

In a suspicious announcement, the United States, barely two hours after the incident was reported, declared that its client state, Ukraine, has nothing to do with the attack while also quickly claiming it was done by the Islamic State – Khorasan (ISIS-K)—even while Russia itself has no idea at the time on who the perpetrators could possibly be.

This messaging was immediately parroted by the Western Mainstream Media (WMSM) aimed at exonerating Ukraine and focus Russian investigators strictly to the ISIS.

The American version was given credence after ‘Amaq,’ the IS news agency, broadcasted the attack.

In a quick rebuttal, Maria Zakharova, spokesperson of Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asked Washington the basis for its quickly absolving Ukraine from the carnage.

“The White House said it saw no indication that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved in the terrorist attack in Moscow.

“On what basis do officials in Washington draw any conclusions about anyone’s innocence in the midst of a tragedy?

“If the United States has or had reliable information in this regard, then it must be immediately transferred to the Russian side. And if there is no such data, then the White House has no right to issue indulgences to anyone,” Zakharova said.

Pundits also noted that nearly 2 years since the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022 (see related article here), the US continues to profess “ignorance” on who carried out the attack but was able to finger ISIS just two hours after the Crocus incident.

Curiously, a week before the attack, the US Embassy and the UK Embassy in Moscow, issued a security warning on March 7, warning their citizens of a terrorist attack in Moscow within the next 48 hours. The advisory informed US and British citizens to particularly stay away from “large gatherings in Moscow to include concerts.”

A month before this, on February 22, Victoria Nuland, then US undersecretary for political affairs, the “architect” of the 2014 coup in Ukraine warned in a speech that Russia is headed for “nasty surprises.” Nuland has since resigned (or was fired) from the State Department after her rabid ‘Russophobia’ aimed at inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia failed disastrously.

Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, also confirmed that the US side did not forward to him any specific information regarding the terrorist threat before it took place, contrary to existing international protocols on the sharing of information on terrorism and despite Washington lamely claiming it did warned Moscow about the potential attack.

Even as the rescue effort is continuing, Russian security services led by the Federal Service Bureau (FSB, formerly KGB) reported to President Vladimir Putin the apprehension of the 4 attackers in the Bryansk region, near Belorussia, while trying to escape towards Ukraine, “where a ‘window’ is waiting for them.”

The suspects were identified as: Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev (leader of the group), Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and, Mukhammadsobir Faizov, all from Tajikistan.

Seven others were also arrested in the roundup conducted by Russian security forces in Moscow but the number of suspects is expected to increase further.

Retired Colonel Bakhtier Rahkmonov, formerly with the Russian Special Services also forwarded a Telegram post from the Ukrainian Embassy in Tajikistan on March 25 where it was shown that Ukraine is openly recruiting Tajiks to become part of its ‘International Defense Legion,’ composed of foreign mercenaries. Ukraine’s present ambassador to Tajikistan, Faizullo Kholboboev, is previously head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service.

In his second address to the Russian people after the incident, Putin acknowledged the attackers as members of the ISIS-K but asked loudly why they are seeking refuge in Ukraine and who else could benefit from the incident.

He also earlier decreed March 24, a Sunday, as ‘National Day of Mourning’ in Russia in homage to the victims.

Putin said the Crocus attack is meant to “intimidate” Russia, drive a wedge in its multi-ethnic society and force it to escalate further its attack on Ukraine that, in turn, would justify the entry of NATO troops on Ukraine for a full-scale, open war between Russia and the West, as demanded by French president, Emmanuel Macron.

Ukraine, USA, UK, behind Crocus terrorist act– FSB

With its documented history of supporting Islamic terrorist groups from Al Qaeda to the ISIS groups in Iraq and Syria and its branches in Southeast Asia and in the Philippines, the US finger-pointing the ISIS as solely behind the Moscow attack has received widespread doubt and suspicion.

Over at Telegram, Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst, claimed on March 23 that, “The terrorist attack in Moscow was the work of Ukraine, and the United States knew about it.”

On the same day, in his own Telegram channel, Scott Ritter, a former US Marines intelligence officer and weapons inspector for the United Nations (UN) during the search for Iraq’s ‘WMDs’ (weapons of mass destruction), also said that “evidence” points to Ukraine and the CIA as behind the Crocus terrorist attack.

Sergei Goncharov, president of the International Association of Alpha Veterans – an elite Russian counterterrorism force subordinated to the FSB, said he has “no doubt” that it was Ukraine which “provoke” the Crocus attack, in a separate interview by ‘Sputnik,’ a Russian channel.

“What happened today was a terrible tragedy… but I have no doubt that it was provoked by the Nazis of Ukraine,” the retired Alpha captain said.

FSB director, Alexander Bortnikov, in an interview on March 26, directly pointed to the ‘U3’ “triumvirate” of Ukraine, United States and UK as behind the attack.

“We believe this to be so,” Bortnikov stated. “This is the general picture, in which we expect enormous further developments,” he added, as quoted by ‘Tass’ the official Russian news agency.

“What needs to be done in order to prove one’s worth (capability)? It is necessary to carry out sabotage and terrorist acts in the rear, which is what both the leadership of the Ukrainian intelligence services and the British intelligence services are aiming at.

“The American intelligence services have spoken about this (terrorist acts against Russia) more than once,” he explained further.

Ukraine is ‘haven’ for Islamic extremists

“If you look at the context of American foreign policy, where there’s little room for any sort of moral imperatives, it’s understandable why this convergence of interest can sometimes pave the way for the Americans allowing some of these terrorist organizations to grow up as mushrooms,” Hasan Abdullah, a political scientist at Global Security and Strategy Initiative told Sputnik in a separate interview.

He noted that Ibrahim Awad ‘Abu Bakr’ Al-Baghdadi, an Iraqi national who went on to become ‘Caliph’ of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) was ordered released in prison by US President George Bush Jr., at the American-controlled Camp Bucca in 2004, where he was incarcerated along with other leaders of Al Qaeda. He committed suicide in 2019.

Ukraine itself is known to have become a haven for ISIS under the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv, with its fighters now among those battling Russian forces in Eastern Ukraine.

Among the prominent ISIS commanders that went to Ukraine is Caesar Tokhosashvili, aka, ‘al-Bara al-Shishani,’ who has been “quietly living” in Belaya Tserkov, Ukraine, since 2018, after faking his death a year before during a US air strike in Syria.

Tokhosashvili arrived in Ukraine with his family using his original passport, thus his personality as an ISIS terrorist commander is well-known to Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior and the Security Service (SBU), according to an old report from Sputnik.

Wanted by the CIA, he was “quietly” arrested and transferred to Georgia in 2019 where he is detained for terrorism activities.

Another is Rustam Azhiev, aka, Abdul-Hakim Shishani, a Chechen radical Islamist who fought alongside Al Qaeda in Syria before going to Ukraine to join the UAF in the fight against Russian troops in 2022. He is now a citizen of Ukraine and a commander in Ukraine’s International Legion composed of foreign mercenaries.

The MWSM is also very much aware of ISIS fighters in the rank of the Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) having taken photos of some of them in the frontline with their ISIS badges in full display but chose to downplay this fact in their reporting.