©Reuters. A suspect in the Crocus City Hall concert hall attack is escorted into the Basmanny District Court in Moscow, Russia, March 24, 2024. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – France joined the United States on Monday in saying intelligence indicated Islamic State was responsible for the attack on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed 137 people, while Russia continued to suggest that Ukraine was to blame.
In the deadliest attack in Russia in two decades, four men burst into the Crocus town hall on Friday evening, firing bullets at a concert by the Soviet-era rock band Picnic. In addition to the dead, 182 people were injured.
Four men, at least one Tajik, were held in custody on terrorism charges. They were taken separately to a cage at the Basmanny District Court in Moscow.
The Islamic State said it was responsible for the attack, a claim the United States has publicly said it believes. The hardline Islamic militant group has released what it says is footage of the attack. U.S. officials said they warned Russia this month via intelligence of an imminent attack.
French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters: “The information at our disposal… as well as that of our main partners, indeed indicates that it was an entity of the Islamic State that instigated this attack.”
“This group has tried to carry out various actions on our territory as well,” he said during a visit to French Guiana.
U.S. officials say their intelligence indicates the Afghan affiliate Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) was responsible.
PUTIN DID NOT MENTION THE ISLAMIC STATE
President Vladimir Putin has not publicly mentioned the Islamic State in connection with the attackers, who he said were trying to flee to Ukraine.
Putin said that some people on the “Ukrainian side” were ready to push them across the border. Ukraine has denied any role and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Putin of trying to deflect blame, which Macron called a mistake.
“I think it would be cynical and counterproductive for Russia itself and for the safety of its citizens to use this context to try to turn it against Ukraine,” Macron said, adding that France offered cooperation to help find the culprits.
The White House on Monday rejected Russian claims that the attack was linked to Ukraine.
“There was no connection to Ukraine. This is just more Kremlin propaganda,” White House spokesman John Kirby (NYSE:) said in Washington.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously cast doubt on US claims that Islamic State, which once sought control over swaths of Iraq and Syria, was behind the attack.
Writing in the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, he said the US was invoking the “bogeyman” of Islamic State to cover its “departments” in Kiev, and reminded readers that Washington had supported mujahideen fighters fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 80s.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia could not comment on the Islamic State allegations while the investigation continues, and would not comment on American intelligence, saying it was sensitive information.
After the attack, hundreds of Russians laid flowers outside the Crocus town hall to remember the victims.
Picnic, the group that was due to perform on Friday, will stage a memorial concert in St. Petersburg on Wednesday together with a symphony orchestra in aid of the victims, the city’s Oktyabrskiy concert hall announced.
THE VIDEO SHOWS A PART OF THE SUSPECT’S EAR BEING CUT OFF
Putin said 11 people had been arrested, including the four alleged gunmen, who he said had fled the concert hall and headed towards the Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow , to cross the border into Ukraine.
Unverified videos of the suspects’ interrogations circulated on social media. One of the suspects was shown to have part of his ear cut off and stuffed into his mouth.
One man, a Tajik named Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, leaned against the glass cage as the terrorism charge was read. Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, with his ear bandaged, remained seated.
Muhammadsobir Fayzov appeared in hospital clothes and sat in a medical chair, his face covered in cuts. Shamsiddin Fariduni was standing, his face full of bruises.
Peskov left a reporter’s question about the treatment of prisoners unanswered.
Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a major war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian representatives on the other.
The United States and its European allies have supported Ukraine, pouring billions of dollars in money, weapons and intelligence into an effort to defeat Russian forces.