“ISIS Khorasan Province” did not delay in claiming responsibility for targeting the commercial center in a Moscow suburb on Friday evening, which resulted in dozens of civilian casualties and injuries.
The terrorist organization’s operation came four days after Russian President Vladimir Putin was declared the winner of the main elections, in a message that became clear from his opponents in response to his victory and revenge for his victories on the political and field arenas by targeting his popular incubator that voted in favor of his victory.
The Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement posted on its Telegram channel that its fighters “attacked a large gathering on the outskirts of the Russian capital, Moscow, and then withdrew to their bases safely.”
But Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in a televised speech on Saturday evening that security forces had managed to arrest all four perpetrators of the terrorist attack.
The arrest of the terrorists came while trying to escape to Ukraine, which has become a suitable arena for training terrorist and extremist groups, to launch terrorist attacks on Russia, especially after NATO opened its doors to attract all possible militants, in an American-British attempt to weaken Moscow.
Such a bloody terrorist attack (154 dead) in the Russian capital is an attempt to hit the image of the security forces, and an attempt to show the existence of security breaches in Russia, according to the scenario drawn by the authors and supporters of this terrorist attack, but the immediate reaction of the Russian security forces, and their success, within record time, in identifying and arresting the perpetrators, thwarted these attempts, and strengthened the image of the Russian security, and the judicial organs that are currently considering the case in the Basmani Court, where those involved were transferred to receive their punishment. Legal.
US bases in Syria support the group
It has become clear that the organization no longer hides its close association with the US intelligence chambers and its allies and its implementation of their agendas, as it focuses its operations against Russian forces and the Syrian army in Syria in locations where it has US army bases in the east of the country, especially in the Al-Tanf area on the Syrian-Iraqi-Jordanian border triangle.
In January, ISIS Khorasan claimed responsibility for an attack on a memorial procession in the Kerman region of Iran that killed 84 people, and in September 2022, ISIS militants claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed the Russian embassy in Kabul.
In Niger, the group claimed an offensive against Niger’s military that killed 30 soldiers and wounded 17 others, a few days after canceling an agreement allowing a U.S. military presence in the country and asking them to leave immediately.
Britain supports the organization logistically
The role of British intelligence in supporting the activity of ISIS in the Middle East cannot be ignored, which has become a card for its intelligence to move whenever it wants and towards any goal it wants, by providing all logistical means through its embassies to the organization’s elements, including securing documents, passports, and money.
In the last statistics issued about a year ago, Britain confirmed that more than 950 of its citizens joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria, through the words of the director of its intelligence service, stressing that more than half of them returned to the country, and are subject to the surveillance system, which confirms the use of British intelligence as a means of communication with the organization’s operations rooms and benefit from them in communication, and the British government said at the time that it subjected the returnees to a severe surveillance system and tracking device, which many denied and confirmed The tracking device was installed on only 4 returnees.
According to information from sources linked to Russian intelligence services, the group may be supported by Britain, which is trying to weaken Russia as a regional center, in several fields, most notably Ukraine. It is no coincidence that Boris Johnson, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom, often traveled to Kiev and escalated the conflict, promising Ukraine full support.
In the confessions of one of the members of the organization arrested by Russian security, Fereydoun Shams al-Din, he confirmed that he arrived in Moscow from Istanbul on the fourth of March, and this confirms that the US intelligence and its allies brought these elements from their strongholds in the Al-Tanf area and transferred them to Turkey in preparation for sending them to carry out their operations against America’s opponents and allies.
As the images broadcast by Russian media showed the Russian security arrests of terrorists during their escape towards the Ukrainian border, that among the nationalities participating in the terrorist attack on the commercial center is armed from the state of Tajikistan, and the option of recruiting “ISIS” of this nationality did not come from a vacuum, as British intelligence has been seeking for some time to ignite tension between Moscow and the countries of the former Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan).
This type of terrorist attack can increase tensions between the countries concerned, so the choice of the countries supporting the attack was to choose militants of these nationalities to take advantage of two factors, the first is ease of movement to carry out operations, and the second is to create a state of mistrust between Moscow and its allies, which may encourage tightening security measures on the mutual visit of citizens of those countries, which increases tensions and makes peaceful cooperation more difficult. Ultimately, extremists and terrorist organizations could benefit from this potential conflict by strengthening their presence and influence in the region and bolstering their domestic support by the countries benefiting from this tension, especially Britain.
Colin B. Clark, a counterterrorism analyst at the Sofan Group, a New York-based security consulting firm, said, “ISIS-Khorasan has been focusing its attention on Russia for the past two years, often criticizing President Vladimir Putin for his propaganda for his intervention in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.”
One of the reasons why “ISIS-Khorasan” targeted Russia is related to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military interventions in the Middle East, especially in Syria, and this caused the decline of the US role in the region after losing many of its tools that it used to strike the interests of its opponents.
ISIS has reportedly exploited political and military tensions in the region to carry out attacks targeting Russian interests and allies. These attacks are seen as a reaction to Russian military interventions in the Middle East and some North African countries.
In addition, some hardline factions are believed to have exploited the alarm with Russia’s policies in the Middle East and others may have a sense of injustice to recruit their members and direct their attacks against Russia’s interests and also to carry out their terrorist agendas.
Some militant factions are strengthening their strategies and attacks in response to what they see as Russian interference in the affairs of other countries, including Ukraine, where they try to take advantage of the other side to implement goals within Russian interests in exchange for material support that preserves the continuation and expansion of the organization.
The warning issued by US and British intelligence during the past weeks to Russia of the possibility of attacks on its territory, without showing more details about the source of these possibilities, is a clear confirmation about the intelligence relationship of the two countries with ISIS, as this announcement did not come out of thin air, and is only a joint American-British attempt to prevent pointing fingers at Ukraine, which confirmed the confessions of one of the militants participating in the attack that it was the destination of escape after carrying out the operation, in coordination with people within its borders.
What is “ISIS” Khorasan Province
The branch was founded in 2014, the year the main Islamic State group declared the establishment of a “caliphate” in Syria and Iraq. Its founders included former Taliban supporters in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as al-Qaida supporters. “ISIS” in Khorasan plays a prominent role, with an estimated 6,000 militants active in the group, with the group’s recent heaviest attacks concentrated in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Khorasan Shihab al-Muhajir or known as Thana Allah al-Sadiq (al-Ghafri), an Iraqi born in Afghanistan on October 28, 1994, is responsible for approving and funding all ISIS operations throughout Afghanistan.
A UN report said that since June 2020, under the leadership of the “muhajir” leader, the branch “remains active and dangerous” and seeks to inflate its ranks with disgruntled Taliban fighters and other hardliners.
Al-Muhajir worked as a contractor for a security company and frequently visited Bagram airport, one of the largest U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. He was the private guard of the first vice presidents, Abdirashid Dostum and Amrullah Saleh, and has had a license to transport weapons since 2017.
All the data indicate that the immigrant had succeeded in opening channels of communication with the American and British intelligence during the period of those two countries in Afghanistan, and it is no longer excluded that he will be liquidated after the end of his duties in carrying out operations that serve the interests of the two countries, and the crime of the commercial center in Moscow may expose many things that confirm the involvement of the intelligence of those countries in the crime, but pending the end of investigations with the detainees who carried out the operation.
The above opens the door to clear questions: Who benefits from the destabilization of Russia? Why is ISIS using people from Tajikistan in the dark? Why is Britain, after the failure of its policy in Ukraine, trying to provoke disagreements between Russia and its close allies?
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