Russians capture one terrorist, a French national?
Posted by Ken Waldron on March 23, 2024, 3:01 am
This is from a Macedonian news agency: Mina Report. I can't access Twitter anymore to check.
Russians capture one terrorist, a French national? By Mark Abramoff -March 23, 20240
Russia’s FSB has captured one of the terrorists, the man didn’t speak Russian, and according to leaked information, he is French who didn’t manage to get ‘extracted’ in time from the scene.
One can only imagine the ongoing interrogation of this terrorist…
⚡️One of the shooters in Moscow has been captured and arrested pic.twitter.com/ClLvpfkKKT
I saw this video circulating last night when I posted on the start of events lower down board. I saw several posts saying he was a journalist and on some video I've seen of him being led away he has a lanyard on which would be an odd thing to wear on a terrorist mission unless as part of a disguise to gain access to something but it seems they didn't do any of that and just went in hot.
As always with social media in the early stages of these things information is at a premium and there's a glut of error, repetition and supposition.
If he is one of the shooters, I hope he's enjoying the comforts of the Lubyanka and can only imagine the hammering he's getting. I imagine they are going to be able to make him say whatever they want him to though so if this firms up and "he says" something it will be hard to trust it anyway.
Another strange thing (apart from the US having been warning their citizens about going to "public events and concerts"; what a coincidence they got the exact scenario!) last night when it started was the immediate state department denial on behalf of Ukraine followed by several denials by UKR themselves.
This has been accompanied by the "Putin just won an election and suddenly he has a terrorist attack" false flag stuff. You would think if they were going to stage something it would be before the election no?
I guess we'll have to wait and see but this definitely draws attention away from you know what and fits what I posted a couple of weeks ago about their new strategy for dealing with the genocide was to ramp down on the reporting and ramp up Russia/Ukraine again....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: Russians capture one terrorist, a French national?
US intelligence backs Islamic State claim of responsibility for Moscow music hall shooting Andrew Roth
The ISKP regional affiliate has a haven in Afghanistan and carried out recent bombings in Iran, suggesting it has capacity for major atrocities
Speculation about who carried out the shooting at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow has quickly indicated that the terror attack will have outsized political implications in Russia and abroad.
A claim has surfaced that the attack was carried out by Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) a regional affiliate of the IS terrorist organisation. IS has been implicated in some of Russia’s largest recent terror attacks, including the 2017 bombing in the St Petersburg metro that killed 15 and injured 45.
US intelligence told American news agencies that there’s “no reason to doubt” the IS claims of responsibility.
Russia’s FSB security service said that on 7 March it had prevented an armed attack by the group on a synagogue in the Kaluga region near Moscow.
“It was established that the militants of an international terrorist organisation are preparing an attack on the parishioners of the synagogue using firearms,” the FSB said in a statement. a building on fire
Within hours, the US embassy issued an unusual warning for American citizens to avoid large gatherings and in particular concerts, repeating calls for US citizens to leave Russia. “The embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the embassy said on its website.
CNN reporters said they had been told that “since November there has been ‘fairly specific’ intelligence that Isis-K wanted to carry out attacks in Russia … US intelligence warned Russia about it”.
The US seem to have been very well informed beforehand and very quick to want to apportion blame to this ISKP mob (funny how they always have a new name every time they get dusted off for a new use)....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Also, fwiw, no mention on the many "what we know so far" threads
I guess if one of them did get caught alive the spook move would be to report all of them getting away and then claiming any subsequent appearance by the prisoner, and any damaging confession by them, to be a put-up job.
...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: Russians capture one terrorist, a French national?
Because all governments treat terrorists who kill their citizens harshly. They don't have the recent Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo type scandals but let's not pretend they don't have history on this front....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: Russians capture one terrorist, a French national?
I agree; the septics are way worse in all aspects of it but that doesn't mean you're not getting fucked up if you do this kind of thing on Russian soil and they catch you. Russia isn't some shining beacon of respect for human rights and it's unrealistic to pretend otherwise.
Anyway, getting caught brings me to this:
Russia’s Federal Security Service has issued a statement confirming it has arrested 11 suspects after the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night, including four who it says participated directly in the attack. It claims that the suspects were attempting to flee to the Russia-Ukraine border. The FSB said it had informed president Vladimir Putin of the developments.
Leading politicians have accused Ukraine of being involved in the attack, which Kyiv denies. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing any evidence.
11 people involved in the crime were detained, including four direct perpetrators. They were found on the way to the border with Ukraine, where, according to security officials, they “had relevant contacts”
One of the detainees said that he committed a crime “for money, about 500,000 rubles (£4,300 / €5,000 / $5,400)”. He said he had been contacted on Telegram and provided him with weapons;
Security measures have been strengthened in Moscow and the regions, mass events have been cancelled. Foreign countries, including unfriendly ones, condemned the terrorist attack and expressed condolences.
A plausible scenario is getting some mercs to go in from Ukraine, do the deed and then push claims from this ISKB mob to try and point attention elsewhere. Might be hard to do now they have rounded most of them up....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Moscow concert hall attack: Why is ISIL targeting Russia?
More than 115 people have been killed and some 120 injured in a deadly Moscow attack claimed by an ISIL affiliate.
By Kevin Doyle Published On 23 Mar 202423 Mar 2024
More than 115 people have been killed and nearly 120 others were injured following a brazen attack on concertgoers at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall before a performance by a Soviet-era rock band on Friday.
Assailants dressed in camouflage uniforms opened fire and reportedly threw explosive devices inside the concert venue, which was left in flames with its roof collapsing after the deadly attack.
Eleven people had been detained, including four people directly involved in the armed assault, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported early on Saturday.
ISIL’s Afghan branch – also known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-K) – has claimed responsibility for the attack and United States officials have confirmed the authenticity of that claim, according to the Reuters news agency.
Here is what we know about the group and their possible motive for the Moscow attack.
ISIL’s Afghanistan branch
The group (also known as ISIS-K) remains one of the most active affiliates of ISIL and takes its title from an ancient caliphate in the region that once encompassed areas of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
The group emerged from eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and was made up of breakaway fighters of the Pakistan Taliban and local fighters who pledged allegiance to the late ISIL leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The group has since established a fearsome reputation for acts of brutality.
Murat Aslan, a military analyst and former Turkish army colonel, said ISIL’s Afghanistan affiliate is known for its “radical and tough methodologies”.
“I think their ideology inspires them in terms of selecting targets. First of all, Russia is in Syria and fighting against Daesh [ISIL] like the United States. That means they see such countries as hostile,” Aslan told Al Jazeera.
“They are now in Moscow. Previously they were in Iran, and we will see much more attacks, maybe in other capitals,” he added.
Though its membership in Afghanistan is said to have declined since a peak in about 2018, its fighters still pose one of the greatest threats to the Taliban’s authority in Afghanistan. Previous attacks by the group
ISIS-K fighters claimed responsibility for the 2021 attacks outside Kabul airport that left at least 175 civilians dead, killed 13 US soldiers, and many dozens injured.
The ISIL affiliate was previously blamed for carrying out a bloody attack on a maternity ward in Kabul in May 2020 that killed 24 people, including women and infants. In November that same year, the group carried out an attack on Kabul University, killing at least 22 teachers and students.
In September 2022, the group took responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul. Advertisement
Last year, Iran blamed the group for two separate attacks on a major shrine in southern Shiraz – the Shah Cheragh – which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 40.
The US claimed that it intercepted communications confirming that the group was preparing to carry out attacks before coordinated suicide bombings in Iran in January this year killed nearly 100 people in the southeastern Iranian city of Kerman. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the Kerman attacks.
Why is ISIL attacking Russia?
Defence and security analysts say the group has targeted its propaganda at Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years over the alleged oppression of Muslims by Russia.
Amira Jadoon, assistant professor at Clemson University in South Carolina and co-author of The Islamic State in Afghanistan and Pakistan: Strategic Alliances and Rivalries, said Russia is seen as a key opponent of ISIL, and Moscow has become a focus of ISIS-K’s “extensive propaganda war”.
“Russia’s engagement in the global fight against ISIS and its affiliates, especially through its military operations in Syria and its efforts to establish connections with the Afghan Taliban – ISIS-K’s rival – marks Russia as a key adversary for ISIS/ISIS-K,” Jadoon told Al Jazeera.
Should the Moscow attack be “definitely attributed” to ISIS-K, Jadoon said, the group hopes to win support and advance “its goal to evolve into a terrorist organisation with global influence” by demonstrating that it can launch attacks within Russian territory.
“ISK has consistently demonstrated its ambition to evolve into a formidable regional entity…. By directing its aggression towards nations such as Iran and Russia, ISK not only confronts regional heavyweights but also underscores its political relevance and operational reach on the global stage,” Jadoon said.
Kabir Taneja, a fellow at the Strategic Studies programme of the Observer Research Foundation – a think tank based in New Delhi, India – told Al Jazeera that Russia is seen by ISIL and its affiliates as “a crusading power against Muslims”.
“Russia has been a target for ISIS and not just ISKP (ISIS-K) from the beginning,” Taneja, author of the book The ISIS Peril, said.
“ISKP attacked [the] Russian embassy in Kabul in 2022, and over the months Russian security agencies have upped their efforts to clamp down on pro-ISIS ecosystems both in Russia and around its borders, specifically Central Asia and the Caucusus,” he said.
In early March, Russia’s Federal Security Service, better known as the FSB, said it had thwarted an ISIL plan to attack a Moscow synagogue.
ISIL and Russia have also long been enemies in other battlefields, such as Syria, where Moscow’s airpower and support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime were critical in pushing back gains made by ISIL fighters in the early years of the civil war. Russian forces have also been accused by rights groups and other opposition fronts in Syria of carrying out abuses and excesses against civilians through their bombing campaigns.
Moscow’s close relations with Israel are also anathema to ISIL’s ideology, Taneja said.
“So this friction is not new ideologically, but is so tactically,” he told Al Jazeera. Advertisement
There’s another factor too: Largely away from the world’s attention, the armed group has regrouped into a formidable force after setbacks in Syria and Iran.
“ISKP in Afghanistan has grown in strength significantly … and it’s not just ISKP, ISIS in its original regions of operations, Syria and Iraq, also sees [an] uptick in operational capabilities,” Taneja said. Today, he added, it is “ideologically powerful even if not politically, tactically or strategically … that powerful any more”.
That poses a challenge for a distracted world, he said.
“How to combat this is the big question at a time when big power competition and global geopolitical churn has put counterterrorism on the back burner,” Taneja added.
Previous attacks in Russia
Moscow and other Russian cities have been the targets of previous attacks.
In 2002, Chechen fighters took more than 900 people hostage in a Moscow theatre, the Dubrovka, demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and an end to Russia’s war on the region.
Russian special forces attacked the theatre to end the standoff and 130 people were killed, most suffocated by a gas used by security forces to leave the Chechen fighters unconscious.
The deadliest attack in Russia was the 2004 Beslan school siege which was carried out by members of a Chechen armed group seeking Chechnya’s independence from Russia. The siege killed 334 people, including 186 children.
He seems terrified and there may be some language issues but from his answers it seems "someone" has put together this crew on line promising large amounts of money and supplying weapons while staying in the background. If, which is a big if, this is true it feels very spooky.
...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Didn't the attackers manage to leave passports lying around?....nm