ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack that killed at least 133 people and injured nearly 200 at a shopping mall in Moscow on March 22. The group’s Amaq news agency, which is affiliated with ISIS-K, said the group organized and carried out the attack.
Crocus City Hall shopping and performing arts center in Moscow (Russia) burned down after being set on fire by terrorists. Photo: EPA
IS releases photos of attackers in Russia
The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group on Saturday released a photo of what it said were four attackers in Friday's deadly terror attack in Moscow.
“The attack occurred amid fierce fighting between the Islamic State and anti-Islamic states,” the group’s Amaq news agency added in a statement citing security sources.
IS has claimed responsibility for the attack but Russia has maintained that there is a link to Ukraine, despite strong denials from Ukrainian officials that Kiev had anything to do with the incident.
It is not yet clear whether the above information is true or not. But first, to understand the whole picture, we need to consider what kind of terrorist group ISIS-K is, and if they did carry out the bloody attack in Moscow, what was the motive behind such inhumane acts?
A more brutal version of the Taliban
ISIS-K was founded in 2015 by disaffected members of the Pakistani Taliban who wanted to pursue a more violent version of Islam.
Dubbed Khorasan Province — an old term for the area that includes parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan — and abbreviated as ISIS-K, the group began operating in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and pursues a more brutal version of Islam than the Taliban.
As one of the most active branches of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization, ISIS-K has seen its membership numbers decline since peaking around 2018.
By 2021, ISIS-K's ranks had been nearly halved to between 1,500 and 2,000 fighters as a result of a combination of US airstrikes and Afghan commando raids that killed many of the group's leaders.
ISIS-K suffered a dramatic second wave shortly after the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government that year. As U.S. troops withdrew from the country, ISIS-K carried out a suicide bombing at Kabul airport in August 2021 that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 civilians.
The attack raised ISIS-K’s international profile, making it a major threat to the Taliban’s ability to rule. But the Taliban have since cracked down harder on ISIS-K in Afghanistan. So far, Taliban security forces have prevented the group from seizing territory or recruiting large numbers of disillusioned peacetime Taliban veterans.
Extending violence beyond Afghanistan
The Taliban has contained ISIS-K, preventing it from expanding its footprint in Afghanistan. But outside Afghanistan, the US and many of its counterterrorism allies still view the group as a dangerous threat to global security.
ISIS-K fighters are known for their brutality. Photo: Herald Sun
General Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was rapidly developing the ability to conduct “outside operations” in Europe and Asia. Kurilla predicted that ISIS-K would be able to attack US and Western interests outside Afghanistan “within six months and with little or no warning.”
ISIS-K has a history of brutal attacks, including mosque attacks, in and outside Afghanistan. Counterterrorism officials in Europe say ISIS is looking to expand its operations beyond its “home turf,” and in recent months they have foiled several new ISIS-K plots against European targets.
In a post on its official Telegram account in January this year, ISIS-K said it was behind a bombing that killed 84 people in Kerman, Iran, during a memorial service for Major General Qassim Suleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020.
ISIS-K, which has repeatedly threatened Iran over what it considers polytheism and apostasy, has also claimed responsibility for several previous attacks in Iran.
It is noteworthy that in September 2022, ISIS-K also claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the Russian Embassy in Kabul, which killed two embassy staff.
And now, ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the bloody attack at the Crocus City Hall shopping and performing arts center, on the outskirts of Russia's capital Moscow.
“ISIS-K has focused its attention on Russia over the past two years,” said Colin Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a New York-based security consulting firm, “and has frequently criticized President Vladimir Putin in its propaganda.”
Analyst Colin Clarke explains that ISIS-K attacked Moscow because of Moscow's military intervention in Islamist movements in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria over the years.
Quang Anh
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