Who is to blame for Moscow concert hall attack? US says ISIS, Putin remains unconvinced

Days after the terror attack in the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow, Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Western nations, particularly the United States, remain at odds over the identity of the culprits. While the terror organisation ISIS-K has publicly claimed responsibility for the attack and the West has said that it has intelligence that backs these claims, Putin said that he suspects Ukraine’s hand in the brutal assault.

At least 139 people were killed and 180 others wounded in the Friday shooting. Investigators said that the attackers used Kalashnikov “AK-74” automatic weapons to shoot at the attendants before setting fire to the building with gasoline and escaping.

Who is responsible?

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, first on Friday, just hours after the shooting, and then later on Saturday when they released footage of the incident.

The news agency Reuters said that it was able to confirm the location from the design on the walls and floor which matched other videos showing the scene of the attack and file images of the location.

US claims it warned Russia

The US has maintained that it has intelligence that confirms that the Islamic State is responsible for the shooting, as they claimed. French President Emmanuel Macron too said that his security apparatus has intelligence pointing to “an IS entity” as responsible for the attack.

National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said that earlier this month, the American government had shared intelligence about a planned attack in Moscow. That intelligence had prompted the US embassy in Moscow to issue a warning that “extremists” had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow, she said, as per Reuters.

In a security alert issued on the embassy website on March 7, the US said: “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.”

In a routine press conference on Monday, US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said that the US will continue to share such intelligence with Russian authorities. “…if we have intelligence in the future like the intelligence we had with respect to this attack, we will of course make it available to the Russian Government because we don’t want to see terrorist attacks be successful anywhere in the world.  We don’t want to see the Russian people suffer.  We have never had any quarrel with the Russian people.”

What did Putin say?

In an address to the nation following the attack, Russian President Putin said that four gunmen were detained as they were trying to reach the Ukraine border via car. They were detained in the Bryansk region, about 340 km southwest of Moscow.

“We know that the crime was carried out by the hand of radical Islamists with an ideology that the Muslim world has fought for centuries,” Putin said. “We want to know who ordered it.”

He said that the Kremlin had seen how the US was trying to convince the world that ISIS was responsible for the attack and questioned Washington’s intentions.

“We are seeing that the US, through various channels, is trying to convince its satellites and other countries of the world that, according to their intelligence, there is allegedly no Kyiv trace in the Moscow terror attack — that the bloody terrorist act was committed by followers of Islam, members of the Islamic State group,” Putin said, reported The Associated Press.

“Those who support the Kyiv regime don’t want to be accomplices in terror and sponsors of terrorism, but many questions remain,” he said, adding that it is necessary to find “why the terrorists after committing their crime tried to flee to Ukraine and who was waiting for them there.”

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