Moscow concert hall attack: More than one ISIS branch likely involved in rampage, says report

The terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow on Friday (March 22) that killed at least 133 people might have been carried out by more than one branch of the Islamic State (ISIS), the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on Sunday (Mar 22) citing security analysts. Earlier, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, the group's Amaq agency said on Telegram.

However, the agency did not identify which branch of ISIS was involved in the attack.

Speaking to the SCMP, New York-based terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann said, “There is no question as to the authenticity of the statement, only as to how direct the connection is between ISIS leaders and the actual assailants."

'ISIS rarely claims attacks it doesn't carry out'

Kohlmann, the CEO of cyber intelligence consultancy firm Cloudburst, added that the outfit had previously claimed responsibility for a handful of terrorist attacks by individuals who were inspired by it, but for whom there was not always evidence of a command-and-control relationship.

Kohlmann observed that apart from the Russian military targeting ISIS in Syria, there have also been recent battles between Russia's Wagner group and locally-based ISIS militants in the Sahel region of Africa.

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute of the Wilson Centre, told the publication that ISIS rarely claimed attacks it does not carry out. “It’s one of the only global terror groups with the capacity to pull off a sophisticated attack like this. And the group has had Russia in its crosshairs for a long time,” Kugelman said.

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The report also highlighted ISIS has had a track record of sending small squads of gunmen to massacre people gathering in large numbers in venues like concert halls, most notably being the 2015 Paris attacks.

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his government would identify the perpetrators of Friday's attack. "All the perpetrators, organisers, and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them. We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people," President Putin said.

Russia's FSB security service said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border. It said they were being transferred to Moscow. However, neither the FSB nor Putin presented any proof of a link with Ukraine. Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov told the news agency Reuters that Kyiv had nothing to do with the attack.

Crocus Group vows to restore concert hall

In a statement, Crocus Group vowed to restore the concert hall building. "We will never forget those who fell victim to terrorists. What was destroyed by their dirty hands will be restored," the group said.

The city hall, with a capacity of more than 6,000 seats, was built by Crocus in 2009. All that was left after Friday's attack were the charred iron support beams and the steel frames of hundreds of seats.

(With inputs from agencies)