MOSCOW (AP) — Assailants burst into a large concert hall in Moscow on Friday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing over 60 people, injuring more than 100 and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on affiliated channels on social media. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies had learned the group’s branch in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow and shared the information with Russian officials.
Chechnya is mostly Islamic, and Russia was very unfriendly to them, killings tens of thousands of women and children, with the battle of Grozny (twice) being the crowning achievement of civilian deaths.
Syria is mostly Islamic, and Russia has been killing ISIL/ISIS soldiers (and a large number of civilians) there for for about 9 years.
And Afghanistan itself had some slight history with Russia, being at war with them for about a decade.
Yeah in Syria it's one of the few times US and Russian forces have fought "alongside" each other, both against ISIS.** There were so many greenforce nations in Syria the Pentagon had to dedicate staff to coordinate with a crazy mixbag of groups - Syrian Army, FSA, Kurds, Turkish, Russians, Iraq, and even Iran to make sure no one stepped on each other's feet trying to kill ISIS. Lmao they REALLY pissed off the entire planet.
** - Russia quickly started hunting FSA people too and that's how we got the whole "US absolutely deleting Wagner forces at the oil well" incident
Syria: they also allowed Russian Islamic extremists to go fight in Syria rather than cause trouble in Russia - some of them reportedly joined ISIS
Dagestan
Sudan/Darfur
disproportionate recruitment of Muslim minorities for the Ukrainian front
violent repression of Muslim minorities
involvement in the Sahel + helping military regimes in Niger/Mali/Burkino Faso fight ISIS affiliated groups
Afghanistan: ISIS have previously attacked the Russian embassy there, saying the Taliban aren't radicals and are Russian puppets.
Iran: ISIS has perpetrated attacks in Iran, hates the Iranian regime. Iran is a Russian ally and provides them with drones for Ukraine, Russia in turn supports Iran.
russians were warned about possible terrorist incidents some two weeks ago, but dismissed it entirely. on public side you could see us embassy warning saying to avoid concerts and other crowded places. on tuesday putin straight up said that these warning are western lies and attempt at intimidation. it would make every bit of sense if this isis cell also heard of this warning and just waited for another concert
if it was a false flag, they'll have more coherent pre-cooked narrative ready