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.

‘I pretended to be dead’: Moscow carnage survivors recount horror

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.