One of the suspects in the attack after being arrested by Russian (French) police

Last Friday evening, a concert hall in the Crocus shopping center northwest of the Russian capital, Moscow, was crowded with hundreds of people who were taking their seats to attend a concert. Four men wearing military uniform entered the hall and opened fire on those inside, killing 143 people and wounding about 152, according to the Investigation Committee. Russian.

Hours after the bloody attack, social media accounts - presenting themselves as affiliated with the Islamic State - claimed the organization's responsibility for the attack, while Reuters quoted an American official as saying that the United States had intelligence information confirming the organization's responsibility for the attack.

What do we know about ISIS-K? What are the most prominent attacks launched by him in recent years? Is he really behind the recent attack in Moscow?

Beginnings

The Islamic State organization appeared in Khorasan Province, eastern Afghanistan, in late 2014, and quickly became famous because of its brutality. The name Khorasan was derived from an old word given to a region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan.

It is one of the most active regional organizations affiliated with ISIS, and the number of its members has witnessed a decline since recording its highest levels in approximately 2018. The Taliban and American forces inflicted heavy losses on the organization.

The United States said that its ability to increase intelligence activity against armed groups in Afghanistan, such as the Islamic State-Khorasan Province, has declined since the withdrawal of US forces from the country in 2021.

Who leads the Khorasan organization?

A report published by Reuters - yesterday, Monday - indicates that the leader of the organization is a young man named Ashraf Al-Shabab Thanaullah Ghafari (29 years old), and he was appointed Emir of the Islamic State in Khorasan in 2020.

According to Taliban sources, Ghafari is an Afghan Tajik who was a soldier in the Afghan army before joining the ranks of the organization. His name became famous within a year after the attack that rocked Kabul Airport in 2021, and the Islamic State in Khorasan claimed responsibility at the time. Washington announced at the time that A $10 million reward for whoever comes up with his head.

Mystery surrounds Ghafari's fate and place of residence. Reuters quoted two unnamed sources from the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban as saying that initial reports indicated that Ghafari was killed in Afghanistan last June, but an agency report confirmed that he was not killed, but rather fled across the border to Pakistan after being wounded. Injured.

The Reuters report indicates that the prevailing belief is that Ghafari lives in the border province of Balochistan, which is not subject to the rule of law, according to Reuters.

His most prominent attacks

When tracking the attacks announced by social media platforms that present themselves as affiliated with the organization, and often publish statements attributed to it in which it claims various operations, it can be said that the organization launched attacks inside and outside Afghanistan, some of which targeted mosques.

Earlier this year, the United States said it had intercepted communications confirming that the organization had carried out two bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people.

The double suicide bombing took place in Iran during the memorial service for the late Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani near his grave, and is considered the bloodiest attack in Iran since 1979.

In September 2022, the organization claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that caused deaths at the Russian embassy in Kabul.

The organization also claimed responsibility for an attack on Kabul International Airport in 2021 that killed 13 American soldiers and dozens of civilians during the chaotic American evacuation from Afghanistan.

“Washington uses the organization as a scarecrow.”

But what is striking about the recent Moscow attack attributed to the organization is that Russia doubted the United States’ assertions that ISIS-K was responsible for it.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova questioned the United States’ assertions, and said in an article for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper: “A question for the White House: Are you sure it is ISIS? Can you think about it again?”

The Russian official said that the United States is using the "scarecrow" of ISIS to cover up its actions in Kiev, and reminded readers that Washington supported the "mujahideen" who fought against Soviet forces in the 1980s.

A video shows the confessions of one of the perpetrators of the Crooks City Hall terrorist attack after their arrest. #Al-Mayadeen #Russia #Moscow pic.twitter.com/Am6lRYKm5y

- Al-Mayadeen Channel (@AlMayadeenNews) March 23, 2024

Moscow announced that it had arrested 11 people, including the four gunmen who opened fire on the crowds in the concert hall and then fled.

Russian media broadcast video clips of one of the gunmen who carried out the attack, in which he confessed after his arrest that he and his companions were each offered a sum of half a million rubles (about 5,000 dollars) to carry out the bloody attack.

He said that those who offered them work contacted them through social media, and that they received from them the weapons and military clothing that they used during the attack.

The Russian authorities announced that some of the attackers were arrested on their way to the Bryansk region, about 340 kilometers southwest of Moscow, to sneak across the border into Ukraine.

Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters