It's 3 pm Central as I'm writing this, so there could well be more updates before posting time. But what we know so far is that, a few hours ago, gunmen entered one of the largest concert halls in a suburb known as Moscow Oblast and opened fire on the crowd within.
There were also explosions reported.
The concert hall is connected to a large shopping mall. That was seen erupting into flames as panicked shoppers and concertgoers escaped, and drivers on the roadway next to it videoed the scene.
#BREAKING Suspected terror attack reported in Moscow.
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 22, 2024
There has been a shooting at Crocus City Hall in Moscow.
Hundreds of people were in the building at the time of the attack.
At least 3 attackers active.
After the shooting, the concert hall was engulfed in flames.… pic.twitter.com/6s0hwc9Bni
At last count there were over 40 (now reporting up to as many as 60) dead and at least 100 injured, but the fire is making rescue and retrieval difficult.
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 22, 2024
Parts of the roof have started collapsing at the Crocus City Hall concert hall and shopping mall.
More than 60 people have been killed in the terror attack near Moscow pic.twitter.com/HNqWSmpkyS
The video which has been coming out of the attack is horrifying.
Russians trying to escape run into closed emergency exits in Crocus in Moscow during terror attack. pic.twitter.com/gZroeQiQj5
— Clash Report (@clashreport) March 22, 2024
To my ear - and, as I fed him tweets over Messenger, our son Ebola's once he'd watched - it doesn't sound like random terrorists spraying the crowd indiscriminately.
BREAKING:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 22, 2024
At least 40 killed in a terror attacker near Moscow.
The attack is underway at a shopping center and concert hall. Multiple attackers armed with automatic rifles and explosives reported. pic.twitter.com/9pT1PaWDuj
He sent:
I'll need to find a clearer copy, but that sounds and looks like pros shooting. Not ragtag militia.They're not spazzing and spray. That is calm, cool, deliberate....very spetznas
It is as cold-blooded a slaughter as I have ever seen.
NOBODY IS RUNNING. None of the gunmen are in any hurry. It's as if they're just sauntering through the lobby, maintaining clear and cover, doing clean-up and when they notice movement, someone DIES.
— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) March 22, 2024
Ruthlessly and efficiently.
This is NOT a spazzy ad hoc militia attack.
These… https://t.co/0cwO1Dj940
Russian police have reportedly snagged one gunman.
One shooter is arrested in #Moscow terror attack. pic.twitter.com/gjUNGKCGgp
— Mr Sinha (Modi's family) (@MrSinha_) March 22, 2024
But holy moly, this is a catastrophe.
First, may the good Lord hold all the victims and their families close in the palm of His hand.
But second, what happens from here could be a bigger fire than the one Russian special forces are dumping water on.
In addition, remember it was only two weeks ago that the US warned Putin that there were murmurings of terrorist attacks in the works, and Putin publicly scoffed.
The State media report of Putin dismissing the terrorism warnings is still online.
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 22, 2024
Link to the archived copy in case it is deleted.
(Note Screenshot in my 1st tweet = machine translated)
Via @internetarchive @waybackmachine https://t.co/Rz86oIJsP1 pic.twitter.com/BfZpdPC5VP
Does Putin try to blame the US for facilitating this because we "knew" about them?
Was it Ukrainians? If so, why now? They've had forever to try something in Russia on this scale but haven't.
Suspicious fingers also have to point to Putin himself, who is perfectly capable of murdering his countrymen to score points on the international stage. It is entirely plausible that those were his troops carrying out a false flag in order to blame Ukrainian operatives and force a wider, even deadlier conflict.
The attack also took place in a suburb, not the heart of Moscow. Was that a strategic choice?
Don't forget - the Russian cops do have that one live body to work over.
Then there's another possibility emerging, kind of in the "blast from the past" category: The Ingush.
*[BEEGE UPDATE: 23 MARCH] The tweet I had here previously, I now have in the link below. As more information came in, it turned out that the photos of purported "suspects" being sought by Russian security were, in fact, Ingush, but had been killed during a shootout in early March. I've attached that information, as well as leaving my previous background on the Ingush because it's always good to know as many of the players as possible.
[End UPDATE]*
Ingushetia in the North Caucasus shares land borders with Georgia to its south and the Russian republics of North Ossetia-Alania and Chechnya to its west and east. It is one of the republics that make up Russia.
The overwhelming majority of the population is Muslim and clan links are an integral part of society.
The Ingush and Chechen peoples have close historical, cultural and linguistic ties, although the Ingush have not shared in the fierceness of the resistance to Moscow put up by the Chechens over the past 200 years.
Two familiar words should jump out there: Chechens and Muslim.
The Ingush resistance to Moscow might not have been fierce previously, but perhaps that's changed?
It's interesting that two of the Russian GRU Spetsnaz (The Batmen of Russia) units also had significant Chechen components.
...Two of the most known GRU Spetsnaz units are Vostok and Zapad. Formed by the Russian Federation’s G.U. these two units utilized ethnic Chechen and Dagestani fighters. They fought in both Chechen Wars and the conflict in South Ossetia. Zapad covered the western part of Chechnya while Vostok was in the east. (Given their names mean West and East) (Source).
The purpose of these ethnically-driven units was similar to that of the Muslim Battalion. These fighters knew the area, the language, and the people around them, subsequently making them very important assets in the Chechen wars.
Spetsnaz training is legendary.
What a cast of possible culpable characters in that place.
This really is a ghastly who-done-it hornet's nest.
The question is: Who is behind the terror attack in Moscow?
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) March 22, 2024
Fingers will pointing all over the place. pic.twitter.com/JpGGjkBrCP
One wrong move could send the whole world up.
**********************************************************
And at 5 pm Central, the news breaks, and wow.
ISIS
BREAKING: ISIS claims responsibility for the terror attack in Moscow.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 22, 2024
President Vladimir Putin has not yet made a public statement about the attack on Crocus City Hall.
The U.S. seemed to have knowledge that an attack was coming considering on March 7th, the U.S. warned that… pic.twitter.com/txYeA1J8nd
Wow.
ISIS has now claimed Responsibility for the Terrorist Attack tonight on the Crocus Concert Hall in the Russian Capital of Moscow, with them stating that the Attack was specifically attempting to Target a Gathering of Christians. pic.twitter.com/alUpZV4yqO
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) March 22, 2024
Since this is still developing, I'll be adding updates if any come along.
Great time to have a wide-open border of our own.
***********************************************************************************
UPDATE: 9:49 Central
The AP has had a chance to get much more information.
...In a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency, the Islamic State group said it attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk on Moscow’s outskirts, killing and wounding hundreds. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.
However, U.S. intelligence officials confirmed the claim by the Islamic State group’s branch based in Afghanistan that it was responsible for the Moscow attack, a U.S. official told the AP.
The official said U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that the IS branch was planning an attack in Moscow. He said U.S. officials privately shared the intelligence earlier this month with Russian officials. The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence information and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The Afghanistan connection and the subsequent claims would lead one to believe, if confirmed, that this was the work of the ISIS-K or the Khorsan group. If it sounds familiar, that's because it is. It's the same bastards who killed our kids at Abbey Gate during Biden's disastrous Afghan withdrawal.
The group that claimed credit for the deadly terrorist attack in Moscow on Friday is the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan called Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.
ISIS-K was founded in 2015 by disaffected members of the Pakistani Taliban, who then embraced a more violent version of Islam. The group saw its ranks cut roughly in half, to about 1,500 to 2,000 fighters, by 2021 from a combination of American airstrikes and Afghan commando raids that killed many of its leaders.
The group got a dramatic second wind soon after the Taliban toppled the Afghan government that year. During the U.S. military withdrawal from the country, ISIS-K carried out a suicide bombing at the international airport in Kabul in August 2021 that killed 13 U.S. troops and as many as 170 civilians.
The attack raised ISIS-K’s international profile, positioning it as a major threat to the Taliban’s ability to govern.
Terrific.
New York? Chicago?
How's that "Sanctuary City" crap looking right about now?
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