Expert says Moscow attack carried out by Islamic State – what videos and photos can tell us
An expert has told Sky News the attack on a Moscow concert hall is consistent with Islamic State.
Sky News has analysed IS footage of the attack and an image released by the militant group and spoken to experts about what the materials reveal.
Aaron Zelin, an expert on jihadist groups and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said “the attack itself, the type of people involved, the style of the attack and the media campaign” is all “Islamic State modus operandi”.
IS has said it carried out the shooting massacre, and US officials have said their intelligence indicates that an Afghan affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K, was responsible. However, Vladimir Putin has not publicly mentioned IS in connection with the assailants.
The video
A day after the attack, IS released a video of the assailants inside Crocus Hall via the militant group’s Amaq news agency which shows a number of gunmen storming the building and attacking people.
Screenshot of IS video from the attack. Pic: Islamic State affiliated media
The attackers are seen holding guns and also knives. More than 130 people were killed and over 180 others were injured on Friday night.
Mr Zelin said the type of weapons used in the attack are consistent with IS methods. “We’ve seen in past attacks they shoot people and stab people… They have as many weapons on them as possible so they can inflict as much damage on them as possible.
“So, if they end up using all their bullets and cartridges or AK-47s they will still have a knife to stab.”
While IS has also used other methods in previous attacks, including suicide attacks, another expert said that it would likely be easier to “procure firearms in Russia”.
Screenshot of IS video from the attack. Pic: Islamic State affiliated media
Dr Antonio Giustozzi, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said the way IS carries out attacks “depends on the kind of weapons they can obtain”.
“So explosives, especially plastic explosives that you can use for suicide belts is not so easy to procure…. It’s probably easier to procure firearms in Russia.” He added the “exact choice of weapons can be dictated by what’s available on the black market”.
Clothing worn by suspects match IS image
IS also released an earlier image which they say shows some of the people behind the Moscow attack. It shows four people with blurred faces in front of an IS flag.
Pic: Islamic State affiliated media
Mr Zelin said images “pledging allegiance to the leader of IS” are part of the group’s media campaign.
Sky News has analysed and compared the IS image to subsequent interrogation videos and images by Russian authorities and other photos later taken of the four suspects in court. We used a facial recognition tool and analysed the clothing worn by the suspects.
Clothing worn by three of the people seen in the IS image matches those seen in other videos and images appearing in the aftermath of the attack.
Pic: Islamic State affiliated media
We brightened the IS image above and matched details on the T-shirts worn by three of the people – to other images and videos on Telegram showing them being interrogated by Russian authorities.
The detailing of a logo on a T-shirt worn by one of the suspects in the image below appears blurred in the IS image (left), visible from a screenshot of the IS video (centre) and again on the T-shirt in an aftermath video (right).
ISIS released image (left), screenshot of ISIS video (centre) and screenshot of video circulating on Telegram (right). Pic: Islamic state affiliated media
The suspects have been named as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Muhammadsobir Fayzov and Shamsidin Fariduni.
We cross referenced the aftermath imagery and videos to photos of the four suspects pictured in court using an AI facial recognition tool which confirmed they matched.
Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Murodali, Rachabalizoda Shamsidin Fariduni. Pics: Reuters
Mr Zelin said that while not all IS attacks are the same, there is a consistency to the group’s media campaign.
He explained they often include a line to first claim responsibility, followed by a longer statement, then “photographic evidence of the individuals pledging allegiance to the leader of IS”, followed by some form of video of the attack or to do with the attack.
“It’s definitely a template they use, part of it is to keep them in the news for a longer time,” he added.
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Terrror suspects appear with face injuries
Claiming responsibility for attack
Experts are convinced no other group is responsible.
Dr Giustozzi said: “This is about, intimidating, spreading terror and primarily the recruitment and funding for the militant group.”
Mr Zelin said in the aftermath of attack, he had seen in their “different types of propaganda in a number of different languages that they are trying to recruit people”.
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has not publicly mentioned Islamic State in connection with the assailants, who he said had been trying to flee to Ukraine with help from “the Ukrainian side”.
Ukraine has denied any role and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Putin of seeking to divert blame.
Washington said it had warned Russia this month of an imminent attack. A source familiar with this intelligence said it was based on interceptions of “chatter” among IS-K militants.
World
Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
In the nation of ‘Cade Mile Failte’ (a hundred thousand welcomes), the residents of Coolock want to shut the door.
They’ve set up an anti-immigrant camp in the north Dublin suburb, outside a disused factory earmarked to house asylum seekers.
With green, white and orange, they’re staking claim to this ground, their protest tents bedecked with dozens of Irish flags.
Car horns blast every four or five seconds, in response to a large poster reading: “Beep if you support Coolock.”
Their other roadside banners state: “Community concern over 1,000 male migrants being housed in this building” and “Irish lives matter”.
The camp is occupied 24 hours a day, with young men guarding it overnight and residents of all ages during the day.
Two elderly women, two younger women and half a dozen men of various ages were on site when we arrived.
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The camp was marked with a number of Irish flags
Sean Crowe, who describes himself as “a concerned parent”, said: “Coolock’s message is we don’t want them here, we just don’t want them, end of story.
“We have our own gangs and trouble going on that we can’t sort out. The place is bad enough as it is.”
“It’s just going to put more of a strain,” the father-of-one added.
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Asked how he would reply to those who describe protesters as “racist”, he replied: “It’s not about racism.
“It’s about the strain it’s going to put on the community and local amenities around the place.
“That’s all it’s about, concerned parents.”
The camp at Coolock is just one of several that have sprung up across the Republic in the past year.
In several places, like Newtownkennedy in County Wicklow, the tension has reached breaking point, with public order police officers deployed.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
“We fear they’re going to do the same thing here,” said one protestor at Coolock, who wished to remain anonymous.
“If the Gardai [Irish police] attempt to shut down our peaceful protest, all hell will break loose here,” she added.
With the sun shining and the smell of meat cooking on their barbecue, it had a community feel about it.
But they’re fiercely critical of their current government and you can sense that the tension isn’t far beneath the surface.
“Eighty percent of them are crossing the border from Northern Ireland and they knew that would happen,” Sean told me.
“It’s time to close the border” are not words you expect to hear, when Ireland fought hard to keep it open.
World
Family protests outside suspected serial killer’s lair as they wait for news of teenager who went missing 12 years ago
The family of a missing high school student who may have been the first victim of a suspected serial killer in Mexico City have protested at the site where bones were found last week.
The bones were discovered with the belongings of at least six women, police said, and Amairany Roblero’s relatives have been told that evidence was found relating to her 2012 disappearance.
Ms Roblero was 18 when she vanished and, as is often the case in Mexico, her family was left to investigate her disappearance with little help from prosecutors.
Family friend Alejandra Jimenez said: “The prosecutors had the case file but they didn’t ever give any results to her parents.”
Instead, her parents printed flyers and gave them out near her school – the last place she was seen – but they had “nothing, nowhere to start, nor any directions to the end”, Ms Jimenez added.
Friends and family holds images of women who have gone missing. Pic: AP
A suspect, identified only by his first name, Miguel, was detained by neighbours and police last week after he is alleged to have killed a seventh young woman.
He is accused of waiting for a woman to leave her apartment and then rushing inside to sexually abuse and strangle her 17-year-old daughter.
The woman returned to the apartment to see the suspect leaving and she was slashed across her neck before he ran off.
She survived but her daughter died.
Investigators searched a room rented by the suspect and found bones, mobile phones and ID cards belonging to several women in the same block, thought to be mementos.
Miguel is awaiting trial on charges of murder and attempted murder relating to the most recent victims.
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City prosecutor Ulises Lara insisted the suspect was difficult to catch because “he showed no signs of violent or aggressive behaviour in his daily life”.
Ms Roblero’s family and friends were not accepting this, however.
“They (authorities) have all the means to look for missing people,” Ms Jimenez said. “Instead of focusing on their political campaigns, they should help all the women who are looking for their children.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Juan Carlos Gutierrez, a lawyer representing the family of another victim, was also frustrated, asking why no investigation had never been launched in that case, despite missing person reports being filed in 2015.
Ms Jimenez said Ms Roblero’s family had not been told which of the items or remains in the apartment had been linked to her, adding: “This is wearing her parents down physically, mentally.”
Some 2,580 women were murdered in Mexico in 2023, according to the country’s National Public Security System but poorly funded and badly trained prosecutors have failed to stop serial killers over the years.
In 2021 a serial killer in Mexico City killed 19 people but their bodies were only found, buried at his house, after the wife of a police commander became one of the victims.
In 2018 another serial killer in Mexico City murdered at least 10 women and was only stopped after he was seen pushing a dismembered body down the street in a pram.
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