Putin says attackers to be punished as IS posts image
Russia has arrested four gunmen suspected of carrying out a shooting massacre in a concert hall near Moscow, and President Vladimir Putin has pledged to track down and punish those behind the attack.
Militant Islamist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for Friday’s rampage but there were indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link despite emphatic denials from Ukrainian officials that Kyiv had anything to do with it.
Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said 133 bodies had been recovered from the rubble in 24 hours, and doctors were “fighting for the lives of 107 people”.
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In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had been detained, including all four gunmen.
“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said.
Russia’s FSB security service said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border.
It said they were being transferred to Moscow.
Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine, with which Russia has been waging war for the past 25 months.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said it was typical of Putin and “other thugs” to seek to divert blame.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told Reuters: “Ukraine was of course not involved in this terror attack.
“Ukraine is defending its sovereignty from Russian invaders, liberating its own territory and is fighting with the occupiers’ army and military targets, not civilians.”
Islamic State has a strong motivation to strike Russia, which intervened against it in Syria’s civil war in 2015, and security analysts said the IS claim seemed plausible as it fit the pattern of past attacks.
Putin cast the enemy as “international terrorism” and said he was ready to work with any state that wanted to defeat it.
“All the perpetrators, organisers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them,” Putin said.
Western nations, including the United States whose ties with Moscow have been fraught since its invasion of Ukraine, condemned the attack and expressed sympathy for the Russian people affected.
Arab powers and many former Soviet republics also expressed shock and sent their condolences.
The White House said the US government shared information with Russia early in March about a planned attack in Moscow, and issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7.
It said Islamic State bore sole responsibility for the attack.
“There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” US National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said on Saturday.
Verified footage showed camouflage-clad gunmen opening fire with automatic weapons in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow.
Video showed people taking their seats, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams.
Investigators said some died from gunshot wounds and others in a huge fire that broke out in the complex.
Reports said the gunmen lit the blaze using petrol from canisters they carried in rucksacks.
People fled in panic. Baza, a news outlet with good contacts in Russian law enforcement, said 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase.
“Many mothers were found embracing their children,” it said.
Health officials said more than 120 people were wounded.
Long lines formed in Moscow on Saturday for people to donate blood.
Russia tightened security at airports, transport hubs and across the capital and big public events were cancelled across the country.
Islamic State, which once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group’s Amaq agency said on Telegram.
Islamic State said its fighters attacked on the outskirts of Moscow, “killing and wounding hundreds and causing great destruction to the place before they withdrew to their bases safely”.
On Saturday it released a photograph of what it said were the four attackers, as well as what it said was footage of the attack.
The roughly 90-second video showed a close-up view of one of the gunmen opening fire on several victims as he entered what appears to be the concert hall.
with DPA
