{"id":5502,"date":"2024-03-26T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=5502"},"modified":"2024-03-26T10:00:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T08:00:51","slug":"factbox-what-do-we-know-about-the-deadly-attack-at-the-concert-hall-near-moscow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ch.jfdi.cc\/?p=5502","title":{"rendered":"FACTBOX-What do we know about the deadly attack at the concert hall near Moscow?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Armed men burst into the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow on Friday, killing at least 139 people and wounding 182 in the deadliest attack in Russia since the 2004 Beslan school siege.
\nWhat do we know about the attack?
\nTHE ATTACK
\nThe four men, armed with Kalashnikov automatic weapons, arrived at the Crocus City Hall at around 6:54 p.m. (1554 GMT). They began shooting at 7:58 p.m., according to investigators.
\nThe men walked calmly towards the metal detectors at Crocus City Hall, firing their automatic weapons point-blank in short bursts at terrified civilians who fell screaming in a hail off bullets.
\nVerified video showed people rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams. The attackers walked through the concert hall aiming and then firing at civilians.
\nThe attackers used Kalashnikov \u201cAK-74\u201d automatic weapons, investigators said. More than 500 rounds were found at the scene.
\nRussian investigators said the men began to set fire to the building with gasoline. At 8:11 p.m. they left the building and as they sped out of the car park, they hit a family with two young children.
\nCrocus City Hall has seats for 6,200 people. The Scorpions, Elton John and Vanessa Mae have performed there. In 2013, Donald Trump attended the \u201cMiss Universe\u201d pageant at the hall.
\nRESPONSIBILITY
\nIslamic State, the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for the attack, the group\u2019s Amaq agency said on Telegram about four hours after the shooting began.
\nOn Saturday, Islamic State released footage of the attack. Reuters was able to confirm the location from the design on the walls and floor which matched other videos showing the scene of the attack and file images of the location.
\nThe United States has intelligence confirming Islamic State\u2019s claim of responsibility for a deadly shooting at a concert near Moscow, two U.S. officials said on Friday.
\nU.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said Washington earlier this month shared intelligence with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow.
\nThat intelligence prompted the U.S. embassy in Moscow to issue a warning that \u201cextremists\u201d had imminent plans for an attack in Moscow.
\nHours before the embassy warning, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled an attack on a Moscow synagogue by Islamic State\u2019s affiliate in Afghanistan, which is known as ISIS-Khorasan or ISIS-K and seeks a caliphate across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.
\nRussian officials have cast doubt on assertions by the United States that Islamic State was responsible.
\nWHAT HAS RUSSIA SAID?
\nRussian President Vladimir Putin said in an address to the nation that the four attackers were heading towards Ukraine when they were detained, and that they hoped to cross the border.
\nAt meeting on Monday, Putin said radical Islamists carried out the attack but said Moscow had seen how Washington was trying to convince the world that Islamic State was responsible and questioned why.
\n\u201cWe know that the crime was carried out by the hand of radical Islamists with an ideology that the Muslim world has fought for centuries,\u201d Putin said. \u201cWe want to know who ordered it.\u201d
\nPutin said the purpose of the attack was to \u201csow panic\u201d. But as Russian forces were advancing through the Ukraine war theatre, he said, it could also be intended to \u201cshow their own population that not all is lost for the Kyiv regime\u201d.
\nWHY NOW?
\nIt is not clear.
\nPutin changed the course of the Syrian civil war by intervening in 2015, supporting President Bashar al-Assad against the opposition and Islamic State.
\nRussia, along with the United States and Syrian forces, played a major role in defeating Islamic State in Syria. Driven out of Syria, its fighters scattered and different branches emerged, including ISIS-Khorasan.
\nTHE ATTACKERS
\nRussia\u2019s FSB said it had detained 11 people including the four men who directly carried out the attack.
\nThe FSB said the four gunmen had sought to escape in a car and been detained in the Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow, attempting to get to the border with Ukraine.<\/p>\n