Acc to mediazzzona there is an ongoing hostage situation in a prison in Rostov, Russia - the hostage takers say they are #IS#daesh#isis#IslamicState members. Shootouts at checkpoints and targeting of policemen has been the main method the IS #Caucasus branch has kept active since the loss of the #caliphate
In its latest special, #Theglobaljigsaw has looked into IS' evolution and re-emergence - some quotes to follow in a thread
@randahl The situation in #Gaza is tragic, but after #Hamas (who was elected to power) attacked #Israel 🇮🇱 on October 7th, 2023, they committed the whole area to the blowback of war.
Hamas is (to put it bluntly) a genocidal organization that needs to be removed from power.
>2 wks before terrorist attack #UnitedStates told #Russia that #CrocusCityHall was possible target of attack
The high degree of specificity conveyed in the warning underscores Washington’s confidence that the #IslamicState was preparing an attack that threatened large numbers of civilians, & it directly contradicts Moscow’s claims that the #US warnings were too general to help preempt the assault.
The #US identification of #CrocusCityHall as a potential target — a fact that has not been previously reported — raises new questions about why Russian authorities failed to take stronger measures to protect the venue, where gunmen killed >140 people & set fire to the bldg. A branch of the #IslamicState took credit for the attack, the deadliest in #Russia in 20 yrs. #UnitedStates ofcls publicly said the group #ISISK, “bears sole responsibility,” but #Putin has tried to pin the blame on #Ukraine.
TV editor Simonyan published a video showing a suspect, a young bearded man, being interrogated aggressively by a roadside, replying in heavily accented Russian to a series of barked questions. He said he’d flown from Turkey Mar4 & received instructions from unknown people via Telegram to carry out the attack in exchange for money.
The man was trembling throughout the questioning. He was initially shown lying on his stomach w/his hands bound behind his back, his chin resting on the boot of a figure in camouflage uniform. Later he was hauled up onto his knees.
Another man w/cuts & bruises to his face was shown being questioned via an interpreter while sitting on a bench w/bound hands & feet.
At the peak of its #power, the group controlled an area the size of Britain, & systematically killed or enslaved members of the Yazidi religious minority, carried out torture & mass killings, & filmed gruesome videos of the executions of its captives, including Westerners. Militants in other regions also pledged allegiance to the group & formed local offshoots.
An #explosion rocked a concert hall in the Moscow region & several #gunmen opened fire on theatergoers Fri evening, acc/to Russian authorities & videos from the scene, a deadly attack >1 week after #Putin was re-elected.
After a period of relative quiet, the #IslamicState has been trying to increase its external attacks, acc/to #US#counterterrorism ofcls. Most of those plots in #Europe have been thwarted, prompting assessments that the group had diminished capabilities.
“#ISISK has been fixated on #Russia for the past 2 years,” frequently criticizing President Vladimir V. #Putin in its #propaganda, said Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a #security consulting firm based in NY.