2024 Crocus City Hall Terror Attack

On 22 March 2024, at around 20:00 MSK (UTC+3), a coordinated attack occurred at the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, a Russian city on the western edge of Moscow. Several gunmen carried out a mass shooting on the people gathered at the venue and used incendiary devices to set the venue ablaze.[7] The attack killed at least 115 people,[1] with over 145 injured, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in Russia since the Beslan school siege in 2004 and the deadliest terrorist attack in Moscow since the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002.[8][9]

Russia's Foreign Ministry called the incident a terrorist attack.[10] The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-KP or ISIS-K), a South-Central Asia-based regional affiliate of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility.[11][3][12]

Background

See also: Terrorism in Russia

Russia was subject to deadly terror attacks in the early 2000s, including the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002[13] and the Beslan school siege in 2004.[14] In 2015, Islamic State militants downed a Russian passenger jet Metrojet Flight 9268 killing all 224 people on board.[13]

On 7 March 2024, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) announced that it had neutralized a terrorist cell linked to IS in Moscow, which had intended to attack a synagogue in the city.[15] Hours later, the United States embassy in Moscow warned "that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts."[16][17] That day, the United States also privately warned Russian officials of the danger of an impending attack from IS-KP from intelligence gathered earlier in March, under the US intelligence community's "duty to warn" requirement.[4]

On 19 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the US embassy's warning "resembles outright blackmail and an intention to intimidate and destabilize our society."[17][18]

US officials confirmed to The New York Times that the attack was related to the prior US warning.[17] National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said it was too early for the White House to comment on the attack.[13]

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Crocus_City_Hall_attack#Perpetrators