On March 20, 2024, a group of 4 gunmen entered Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia with automatic rifles, killing 137 people and leaving about 180 injured. After they finished shooting, the gunmen used explosives and sprayed the building with flammable liquid, setting it on fire. It took about 10 hours to contain the fire with helicopters being called to pour around 160 tonnes of water. While most victims died due to gunshot wounds, many more died due to smoke inhalation from not being able to escape the building. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility for this attack.
U.S. officials later tied the attack to ISIS-K, an affiliate of ISIS that operates primarily in Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to CNN, the U.S. had received a stream of intelligence since November that ISIS-K was determined to launch an attack on Russia. Following this, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris stated, “What we know to be the case is that ISIS-K is actually, by all accounts responsible for what happened.” Even after all of these warnings, Russia ignored them and dismissed them as propaganda as an attempt to meddle with its presidential election.
Around 6,000 people were going to a concert by the rock group Piknik when the gunmen carried out their attack around 20:00 Moscow Standard Time. The attackers then left the building uninjured, and a massive manhunt was launched. 14 hours later, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) captured 4 suspects. The 4 men were later identified as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Muhammadsobir Fayzob. All were identified as citizens of Tajikistan. According to the BBC, all appeared to be beaten up with both Mirzoyev and Rachabalizoda having black eyes and Fayzob was brought to court in a wheelchair.
An anonymous source has stated “It appears that Putin is responding with claims that Ukraine is involved in the attack,” Russian President Vladimir Putin has thrown most of the blame on Ukraine. A former top intelligence officer, Leonid Reshetnikov stated “So long as this kind of government, this kind of regime exists, this terror will exist” he followed up by calling the current Ukrainian government a “terrorist state.” Later the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenzky, responded with “they came to Ukraine and are burning our cities and they try to blame Ukraine.”
This conflict has continued to add to the aggression between Ukraine and Russia in their 2 year old war.
