(Baghdad) The Islamic State group confirmed Friday the arrest in Russia of four of its members, perpetrators of the deadly attack against a concert hall near Moscow, the day after new accusations from Russian authorities denouncing “links with Ukrainian nationalists.
The March 22 attack, which left 143 dead a week ago at Crocus City Hall, has already been claimed by ISIS, but Russian officials insist on a Ukrainian lead. Kyiv, for its part, denies any involvement in this killing.
In its Thursday edition published Friday at dawn, al-Nabaaa weekly of the jihadist organization, confirms that “four fighters, who are soldiers of the caliphate”, attacked the hall in the suburbs of Moscow.
Three of them used machine guns while the fourth was responsible for causing a fire, according to al-Nabaapublished on the channels of the jihadist group’s Telegram application.
The attackers were then the target of a “chase” led by land and air forces, which ended with their “encirclement” in a forest. “May God free them from their captivity,” says al-Nabaa.
The attack, the deadliest in the last 20 years in Russia, left at least 143 dead and 360 injured, including children. Russian authorities previously reported the arrest of 11 people, including the four suspected attackers. Eight were charged and remanded in custody.
PHOTO NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A woman lays flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Crocus City Hall on March 29 in Moscow.
On Thursday, the Russian Investigative Committee, the body responsible for the main criminal investigations, affirmed that the perpetrators of the attack had “links with Ukrainian nationalists” and had received “large” sums of money from Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin himself claimed that the four attackers had been arrested in the Russian region of Bryansk while they were trying to flee to Ukraine, where a “window” allowing them to cross the border had been prepared on the Ukrainian side.
The director of the Russian security services (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, had accused Ukrainian and Western secret services of having “facilitated” the attack.