Massacre in Moscow: what we know about the attack on Crocus City Hall

There is a story of courage that went around the world after the terrorist attack that caused a massacre in Moscow. The main character is Islam Khalilovhe is 15 years old. He saved more than a hundred people during the massacre at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk and was rewarded by his favorite team, Spartak Moscow, with a t-shirt and a season ticket to the club's matches. The boy works as a part-time cloakroom attendant in the theater and allowed about a hundred spectators to pass through a door leading to an adjacent building. “I realized that if I hadn't reacted immediately I would have lost my life and the lives of many others.” His heroic gesture appears in one of the many videos of Friday evening, that of the massacre in which there were over 300 dead and injured. If Islam's heroism is certain, many questions remain open about what happened in Moscow.

What happened

A commando unit made up of at least 4 people opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk. The attackers arrived by car: a white Renault with the license plate of Tver, a district between Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was 8pm in Moscow, 6pm in Italy. They had submachine guns, pistols, explosive material and petrol cans. Where did these weapons come from?

The local group Picnic was supposed to perform in the concert hall on the northwestern outskirts of Moscow. They began shooting with automatic weapons and started a fire that caused the roof of the building to collapse. Inside the venue there would have been 6000 people. The first to fall were the security and organization workers outside the room.

Claims

Isis-K immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the concert hall on the outskirts of the Russian capital, the massacre in Moscow. Ukraine, however, said it was unaware of the facts. ISIS-K considers anyone who does not share its view of Islam to be an enemy and could attack anywhere, but particularly in non-Muslim countries. However, there are experts who consider this branch of ISIS too small to carry out attacks outside places such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, where it has acted so far.

In view of Easter, many Western countries are raising security levels, considering this group particularly dangerous. Macron said there had been threats to France on their part in recent months. In Italy too, vigilance has been intensified for the upcoming Easter holidays: greater attention on the web, greater checks at airports and stations and in sensitive places: of aggregation and religious interest.

The attackers speak Tajik and Arabic and in the videos you can hear the words: “Allah akbar”. On Amaq, the Isis media agency, there is a minute and a half long film that shows what can be seen from the cameras worn by the attackers.

Who are the attackers?

Four people have been accused of the attack. The Basmanny court in Moscow ordered them to be held in pre-trial detention until May 22. Their names are Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, 32 years old, four children had a temporary residence permit in the city of Novosibirsk, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, 30 years old married with one child, Shamsidin Fariduni, 25 years old, married with an 8-month-old child, worked in a parquet factory in the Russian city of Podolsk, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov, a 19-year-old barber. That would be everyone originally from Tajikistan. Article 205 of the Russian Criminal Code was applied to the arrest: terrorist attack by a group of people resulting in the death of an individual. Three confessed. The judge allowed the press to attend only parts of the hearings.

Three of them are recognizable in the video published by ISIS. The attackers were blocked in the Bryansk forest: Moscow says they were going towards Ukraine where they would have found refuge, but they were probably heading towards Belarus. According to the Russian agency Ria Novosti there were confessions on their part. All appeared with swollen faces in court with signs of beatings. The independent media Meduza talks about d torture as already for the cutting off of the ear of one of the arrested people, who was then forced to put it in his mouth (he is the 30-year-old Rachalbalizoda). Pro-Russian Telegram channels published photos of torture during interrogations by security services: a man lying on the floor with his pants down appearing to be connected with electrical wires. No comment on torture from the Kremlin which says it does not answer questions about the progress of the investigations.

Ukraine

The Kremlin attacks Ukraine and does not respond to accusations of not having listened to the warnings about a possible attack launched in recent weeks by Western secret services. Despite all the evidence pointing towards radical Islamism, Moscow speaks of immigrants who were allegedly paid by Kiev's secret services to strike.