On Friday, March 22nd, Crocus City Hall, a concert hall located on the outskirts of Moscow, was attacked by a group of terrorists, resulting in one of the worst terrorist attacks Russia has had in years.
The rock band, Piknik, was holding a concert about 12 miles outside of Russia’s capital city. The concert had over 6,000 attendees. At around 8 p.m., four gunmen opened fire on civilians with machine guns. The attackers also came with grenades, knives, improvised bombs and more. Also, at some point a fire started in the auditorium. The fire took over ten hours to be contained and over 160 tonnes of water was dropped on the building by helicopters. As of April 6th, 137 people had been killed in the invasion, with over 180 people injured.
Shortly after the attack, ISIS-K, Islamic State Khorasan, took responsibility for the attack. Russia’s history with ISIS-K, and ISIS (the parent group of ISIS-K), is long and complicated. However, ISIS-K is known to be one of the deadliest terror groups and has been against Russia for years. Also, the attack on the concert hall wasn’t just an isolated incident. In March alone, there were multiple accounts of incidents that had some connection to ISIS.
One of the big questions is does the attack have any relation to the Russo-Ukrainian War. Putin accuses Ukraine of being involved in the attack, saying they helped the suspects escape Russia after the attack. However, the U.S. argues that Ukraine had no involvement. Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said, “ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever.” Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, has released multiple statements explaining that Ukraine wasn’t involved, and he feels like Putin is trying to “blame someone else.” He explained, “It has happened before. There have been bombed houses, shootings, and explosions. And they always blame others.”
Putin also explained that he plans to get “retribution” for anyone involved in the attack. So far, ten suspects have been charged with carrying out a “terrorist attack”. All four suspected gunmen have been arrested, and the other seven were possible accomplices. However, it is believed that the suspects may have been tortured while in custody. There have been videos of brutal interrogations leaked by the Russian government. Additionally, all of the suspects appear bruised and beat up in photos. One of the suspects, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, even has a bandage over his ear, which many believe is due to interrogators cutting off his ear.
Investigations and hearings are underway as the world waits to see how Russia proceeds after this devastating attack.
