Islamic State attackers publish selfie following Moscow attack

The Telegraph:   Islamic State published a photo of the four attackers it said had “dealt a strong blow to Russia with a bloody attack” on Saturday, in a post detailing how it planned and conducted the assault on a Moscow concert hall that claimed more than 130 lives.

In the picture, which was released on Islamic State’s official news agency Amaq, the four men are wearing black baseball caps and face scarfs and are pointing to the sky with one finger.

The gesture has become associated with Islamic State and refers to the Muslim belief that there is only one god.

In the background is an Islamic State poster with the group’s name in black and white.

The men carried out “an intensive monitoring operation” before the attack, according to the statement.

They were armed with machine guns, knives and bombs and sought to inflict as much damage as possible on the “large crowd of Christians”.

Russian media reported that the attack suspects were from Tajikistan, a Muslim Central Asian country – formerly part of the Soviet Union – that borders Afghanistan, where Islamic State is active.

Islamic State claimed that the attack killed or injured at least 300 people in total.

It said the motive was “the raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting Islam”.

Although the Telegram post did not attribute the attack to a specific branch of IS, the US believes it was conducted by members of the Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K. American security sources, including a senior counterterrorism official, have confirmed as such to the New York Times.

A Kalashnikov assault rifle lies on the ground in the aftermath of the vicious attack

IS-K is an offshoot of the terror group active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

Earlier this month, the top US general in the Middle East said IS-K could attack US and Western interests outside of Afghanistan “in as little as six months and with little to no warning.”

Just weeks ago, the US embassy in Moscow issued a warning of a potential terror attack by “extremists,” advising US citizens to avoid large gatherings, including concerts.

By Saturday, US officials were privately admitting the alert had been partially based on recent intelligence indicating the IS-K branch of the terror group was active inside Russia.

The US also warned that it had “information about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow – potentially targeting large gatherings, to include concerts”. It linked that intelligence to IS-K.

What is IS-K?

IS-K is named after an old term for the Khorasan region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

It emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

In its earliest days, the group had wide-ranging priorities, including toppling the Pakistani government, punishing the Iranian government for supporting the Shia Muslim world, and to “purify” Afghanistan, including by pushing out the Taliban as the main jihadi movement, according to the Wilson Center, a US think tank.

The group’s priorities have expanded in recent years to include the US government.

One of the most active regional affiliates of the IS militant group, IS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018. The Taliban and US forces inflicted heavy losses.

The US government has said its ability to develop intelligence against extremist groups in Afghanistan such as IS-K has been reduced since the withdrawal of US troops from the country in 2021.

An image from video shows windows blown out after a bomb explosion inside a mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif province, Afghanistan, in 2022, blamed on IS-K.

An image from video shows windows blown out after a bomb explosion inside a mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif province, Afghanistan, in 2022, blamed on Islamic State Khorasan. - AP

What attacks has IS-K carried out?

IS-K has a history of attacks, including against mosques, inside and outside Afghanistan.

Earlier this year, the US intercepted communications confirming the group carried out twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people.

IS-K posted at the time on its official Telegram account that it was indeed behind a bombing in Iran during a memorial procession for Qassem Soleimani, the revered Iranian commander killed in a US drone strike in 2020. Iran described it as the worst attack it had experienced in decades.

In September 2022, IS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.

The group was also responsible for a massive attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic Western evacuation from the country.

Other previous attacks in Kabul have included a 2019 wedding reception, killing more than 60 and injuring 180 and a maternity ward the following year, killing 24 civilians, according to the US office of the director of national intelligence.

Before the US withdrew from Afghanistan, IS-K targeted American military personnel. After the US drawdown in 2021, it has become more difficult for Washington to gather intelligence about the group.

Why would IS-K attack Russia?

Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, is based in Afghanistan and has in recent years focused much ire on Russia, which it blames for killing Muslims given Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Syria and Chechnya.

While the attack by IS-K in Russia on Friday was a dramatic escalation, experts said the group has opposed Putin in recent years.

“IS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years,” frequently criticising President Vladimir V. Putin in its propaganda, said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York.

“IS-K accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.”

Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said that IS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims.”

He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.