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French President Emmanuel Macron: “This particular group”

Photo: Yves Herman / REUTERS

The attack in Moscow is also alarming governments in Western Europe. The terrorist militia “Islamic State – Khorasan,” or IS-K for short, has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall near Moscow. Now French President Emmanuel Macron suspects the same offshoot was behind previous attempted attacks in France.

Without naming the subgroup, Macron said that IS had claimed responsibility for the attack in Moscow, "and the information that we have, that our secret services have and that our most important partners have, does indeed indicate that a unit “The Islamic State instigated and carried out this attack.”

As a precaution, the highest security level

"This particular group, which appears to be involved in the attack, has made several (attack) attempts on our own soil in recent months." As a precaution, the highest security level was declared, said Macron, who is in Cayenne in French Guiana expressed.

Almost 140 people were killed in the terrorist attack on an event center near Moscow on Friday. There are speculations that IS-K could have carried out the attack - Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) assumes this. "The danger from Islamist terrorism remains acute," said Faeser.

Terrorism researcher Peter Neumann from King's College in London also believes that the new threat posed by IS-K and other Islamists is quite high. "Since October 7th, since the Hamas terrorist offensive and the resulting conflict, we have had a huge mobilization of Islamists and jihadists all over Western Europe," said Neumann in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.

The IS-K terrorist group has its origins in Afghanistan. The Khorasan in the name represents a historical region in Central Asia that included parts of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, as well as Iran.

mrc/dpa