The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group said on Saturday that four of its fighters had carried out the attack the day before against a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow, which left more than 130 dead.
“The attack was carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and incendiary bombs,” IS said on one of its Telegram accounts.
IS claimed that the attack came “in the context (…) of the raging war” between the group and “countries fighting Islam”.
#IS releases photos of the 4 attackers from #Moscow #Russia https://t.co/dMoR2yhqNh pic.twitter.com/xjCIoQseuV
— Wassim Nasr (@SimNasr) March 23, 2024
The jihadist group claimed responsibility for the attack on Friday evening, saying that its commando had then “returned to its base safely”.
Perpetrators arrested on way to Ukraine, Putin says
Without mentioning the IS claim, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on Saturday to “punish” those responsible for the attack, ensuring that “all four perpetrators” had been arrested on their way to Ukraine.
Ukraine has firmly denied any link to the attack and said Russia, whose offensive it has been fighting for two years, was seeking to shift the blame to it.
ISIS, which Moscow is fighting in Syria and which is also active in the Russian Caucasus, has already carried out attacks in Russia since the end of the 2010s. But the group has never claimed responsibility for an attack of this magnitude.