In the early hours of this Sunday, the self-proclaimed Islamic State released a video that allegedly shows Daesh-Khorasan armed men in the Moscow concert hall, where more than 130 people were killed.
Daesh’s publication supports Islamists’ claim of the attack, after Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out responsibility to Ukraine in his first statements about the attack — a theory that seems, in the opinion of several international analysts, highly unlikely.
In the one and a half minute video, which was recorded by one of the jihadists at Crocus City Hall, it is possible to see several men armed with machine guns and knives. Their faces appear blurred and their voices are distorted. The attackers are filmed firing firearms, there are bodies on the floor and it is clear that a fire has broken out in the building, trapping those in the concert hall.
At one point, one of the jihadists orders: “Kill them, without mercy”, quotes the British The Guardian. Shortly afterwards, the man holding the camera turns it to his face and says: “Allah is great, the infidels will be defeated”, according to the video’s subtitles.
“The attack comes in the context of the violent war between Daesh and countries that fight against Islam”, explained, in a previous publication, Amaq, the news agency of the self-proclaimed Islamic State.
This Sunday, Russia observed a day of national mourning, in honor of the hundreds of victims of the attack. Vladimir Putin claims that 11 people were arrested, including the four shooters, in the south of the Russian region of Bryansk.
The Kremlin, in turn, also shared videos showing soldiers taking those allegedly responsible for the massacre, handcuffed and blindfolded, to the headquarters of the Russian Investigative Committee in Moscow. Later, images of the interrogations of the main suspects were released. One of these videos, which circulate among bloggers Russians, shows apparent signs of torture.
So far, Russian authorities have ignored, at least publicly, Daesh’s claim of the attack, preferring to talk about the terrorists’ alleged links to Kiev.
