Alleged Islamic terrorists hit Russia, 60 dead, over 100 injured in a concert attack

MOSCOW – At least 60 people were killed when gunmen attacked a packed concert venue on the outskirts of Russian capital city, Moscow.

More than 100 others were wounded at the Crocus City Hall, according to the FSB Federal Security Service.

An Islamic State affiliate’s claim that it was behind the Moscow attack would, if proved correct, be the latest in a number of Islamist-linked attacks in or against Russia in recent years.

Video footage obtained by the BBC showed the attackers firing indiscriminately at screaming civilians trying to run away while several explosions can be heard.

Security had tightened with events cancelled across Russia as the county’s national guard searches for the attackers.

President Putin had not addressed the nation directly, but according to a deputy had wished those injured a speedy recovery.

The BBC reported that a Russian plane was blown up over Egypt’s Sinai desert in 2015 with 224 people on board, most of them Russian citizens.

That attack was claimed by Islamic State, which later published a photograph of the explosive device.

In 2017, a bomb attack on the St Petersburg metro that killed 15 people was also linked to radical Islamists.

Militant groups have been fighting Russian forces in the North Caucasus region of the country for decades.

Large numbers of them flocked to Syria to join IS when the group was formed 10 years ago and some militants that operate in the Russian North Caucasus had declared allegiance to IS, say experts.

But the specific group that has claimed Saturday’s attack, ISIS-K, was the Islamic State affiliate in Khorasan – an old term for a region that includes parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

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