Martin Lange with AFP 7:10 a.m., March 24, 2024, modified at 7:11 a.m., March 24, 2024

Russia observes a day of national mourning on Sunday after the massacre in a concert hall in Moscow, the deadliest attack on European soil claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

National day of mourning in Russia this Sunday. Individuals burst into Crocus City Hall on Friday evening, before opening fire with automatic weapons on the crowd and starting a fire with an flammable liquid according to investigators, killing at least 133 people. Denouncing a “barbaric terrorist” act, Vladimir Putin, in a televised address on Saturday, promised to punish the culprits. The Russian president announced that "the four perpetrators" of the attack had been arrested "while they were heading towards Ukraine", without mentioning the IS claim.

The main information to remember:

  • Russia observes national day of mourning on Sunday after massacre at Moscow concert hall

  • This is the deadliest attack on European soil claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS)

  • The Kremlin announced on Saturday the arrest of 11 people "including four terrorists involved in the attack"

  • The toll of 133 dead and around a hundred injured is expected to rise further, according to the authorities. Searches in the rubble continue

  • “Ukraine has not the slightest link with the incident,” insisted the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, rejecting “absurd” accusations.

Research continues

The Kremlin had earlier announced "the arrest of 11 people, including four terrorists involved in the attack." These four “foreign citizens” were captured in the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine and Belarus, according to the authorities. This attack, which occurred in the concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, northwest of the Russian capital, is the deadliest in Russia in twenty years, and the bloodiest to have been claimed by ISIS in Europe.

The toll of 133 dead and around a hundred injured is expected to rise further, according to the authorities. Searches in the rubble of the building ravaged by flames and whose roof partially collapsed are continuing and could take days. Heavy equipment arrived on site Saturday evening to dismantle damaged structures and remove debris, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said.

An instrumentalization?

Assailants of foreign origin, whose interrogations were broadcast by Russian television. Blindfolded and bloodied, one of them admits to having been paid to carry out this attack. Again, no mention is made of the Islamic State group. But for opponent Anastasia Kirilenko, the objective of the Russian authorities is clear.

“The government is trying to exploit the attacks. It’s a perfect pretext to show that we are a fortress under siege. It’s a way of militarizing society, of restricting freedoms even more,” she says in microphone from Europe 1.

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Islamic State video

ISIS, which Russia is fighting in Syria and which is also active in the Russian Caucasus, has already carried out attacks in the country since the end of the 2010s. But the group has never claimed responsibility for an attack of such magnitude. magnitude. On one of its Telegram accounts, IS had claimed on Friday evening that the attack had been carried out by four of its members, and was part of "the context (...) of the raging war" between the group and " countries fighting Islam.

According to the Site group, which specializes in anti-terrorism research, a video apparently shot by the attackers of the concert hall near Moscow was broadcast on social media accounts usually used by ISIS. This one minute and 31 second video shows several individuals with blurred faces and garbled voices, armed with assault rifles and knives, in what appears to be the lobby of the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk.

The attackers fired several bursts, numerous inert bodies littered the ground and we could see the start of a fire in the background. However, neither Vladimir Putin nor the security services (FSB) have accused the jihadist group.

Ukrainian denial

The FSB claimed that the suspects had "proper contacts on the Ukrainian side" and planned to flee to that country, without providing further details on the nature of these links or proof of their existence. “Ukraine has not the slightest link with the incident,” insisted the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, rejecting “absurd” accusations.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Saturday he hoped that this attack would not become "a pretext" for an "escalation of violence", in a clear allusion to Ukraine. The head of public media RT, Margarita Simonian, published videos purporting to show confessions of two suspects during their interrogations, in which they do not name a sponsor. AFP is unable to confirm their veracity.

Many outstanding questions

Despite IS's claim, many questions remain unanswered. According to Russian media and MP Alexander Khinstein, some of the suspects are from Tajikistan. The authorities of this Central Asian country said they had “not received confirmation from the Russian authorities” on this subject. All day Saturday, dozens of shocked Russians flocked to blood donation centers in Moscow or improvised memorials.

"When we see this situation, we don't want to stay away, we want to help," Vladislav, an 18-year-old student, told AFP while waiting in line to donate blood. On many billboards and at some bus stops in Moscow, posters appeared showing a candle on a black background and the inscription: "We are in mourning 03/22/2024."