WorthyNews: Islamic State Claims Moscow Massacre; Scores Killed, Many Injured In Concert Hall (Worthy News Alert)

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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, has claimed responsibility for a shooting attack on a major concert hall near Moscow that killed dozens of people and injured more than 100 others.

An Islamic State branch said its fighters had stormed the Crocus City Hall on the fringes of Russia’s capital, killing at least 60 people, though the death toll was likely to rise.

Witnesses recalled that assailants used automatic firearms and threw explosives, creating a blaze that caused the roof of the concert hall to collapse, at least in part.

It happened shortly before Russian progressive rock band Picnic was scheduled to perform a sold-out show at the 9,500-seat venue on Friday, Russian officials said.

Earlier this month, the U.S. embassy in Russia already issued an urgent warning of an “imminent” terrorist attack in Moscow, Worthy News learned.

The warning came hours after ISIS was reportedly prevented from a planned massacre at a synagogue, but the group apparently reached the concert venue.

U.S. officials said Friday that the United States “collected intelligence” in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow.

STARTING FIRE

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said Friday that “unidentified people in camouflage broke into Crocus City Hall and started shooting before the start of the concert.”

State-run news outlet RIA Novosti reported that the gunmen “threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire.”

Russian authorities said the government had dispatched medical personnel, including over 70 ambulances.

Additionally, special operations teams and the National Guard rushed to the theater, which could be seen engulfed in flames in videos circulating online.

The state-owned TASS news agency reported that emergency response units had rescued about 100 people from the building, with others still trapped.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced on the messaging platform Telegram that he had canceled all cultural events in the city for the upcoming weekend. He stated that he was focused on aiding those injured in the attack.

‘TERRIBLE TRAGEDY’

“Today, a terrible tragedy occurred in the Crocus City center,” Sobyanin said. “My condolences to the loved ones of the victims. I gave orders to provide all necessary assistance to everyone who suffered during the incident.”

Questions remained Friday about why the attack took place about two weeks after the United States embassy in Moscow warned against attending crowded public events because of the threat of terrorism, a notice followed by embassies of several other countries. Additionally, Moscow had recently been hosting another Islamist group, giving red-carpet treatment to Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S. and others.

“The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the embassy said in a March 7 statement.

The warnings came as Russia’s Federal Security Bureau said “an ISIS cell” based in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, tried to shoot Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in the capital.

“While being arrested, the terrorists put up armed resistance to the Russian FSB officers, and as a result, were neutralized by return fire,” the FSB told Russian media.

“Firearms, ammunition, as well as components for the manufacture of an improvised explosive device were found and seized,” it added.

ISIS FIGHTERS

The FSB did not say how many people were killed in the operation at the time. It said the fighters were members of the Afghan branch of ISIS but did not state their citizenship.

Russian authorities frequently announce the thwarting of planned attacks by “suspected Islamist” groups.

It comes at a time when the Kremlin is eager to draw public attention to war from the horrors of battlefields in wartorn Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have been killed and injured, many of them Russian soldiers.

Earlier this month, the FSB said it killed six suspected ISIS fighters in the Muslim-majority southern region of Ingushetia.

Tensions between Russia’s Muslim and Jewish communities have flared at times during the Israel-Hamas war, triggered by Hamas-led fighters killing some 1,200 people in Israel and taking 253 hostages to Gaza on October 7.

Last October, protestors stormed an airport in Dagestan, another Muslim-majority region in the Caucasus, after a plane arrived from Tel Aviv, Israel.

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