‘He’s a key adversary’: why the Islamic State considers Russia an enemy

a brutal terrorist attack This happened last Sunday, March 24, at a concert hall complex in Moscow called Crocus Town Hall. Shortly before 8 p.m., four men dressed in brown stormed the scene with assault rifles and threw Molotov cocktails at the participants.

Thus, via his Telegram channel, he Islamic State (IS) He claims to be responsible for the 139 deaths and more than a hundred injured. Russia accuses them of terrorism.

But even if Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized that they were “radical Islamists”, also He said he believed the attack was part of a “campaign of intimidation” by Ukraine.

Is Putin’s theory really possible? That’s what the analysts say.

The Islamic State has attacked Russia on other occasions: In 2015 this reportedly caused the explosion of a Russian plane in Egypt where 224 people were traveling and in 2022 they attacked the Russian embassy in Kabul where six people died.

According to what the academic says Clemson University , Amira Jadoun wing BBC , Russia has been involved in a series of operations against the Islamic State and its allies, “notably in Syria”. This would make him “a key adversary” and would explain why he is the target of the terrorist group.

Furthermore, The group responsible for the concert hall attack is believed to be a cell of the Islamic State in Khorasan, eastern Afghanistan.

However, the director of South Asia Institute , Michael Kugelman is convinced that The motivations for the recent attack are the Taliban: “They are the worst enemy of ISIS and this organization considers Russia a friend of the Taliban. »

In fact, in recent years, Vladimir Putin has been presented by ISIS as one of its greatest enemies, regardless of the war between Russia and Ukraine. “For the Islamic State, everyone is an enemy of the Muslim faith and everything must be destroyed. » read in an article The Wall Street Journal .

On the possibility of new attacks against the European country, the expert in Islamism and director of the study center Khorasan Newspaper , Riccardo Valle told the BBC that “IS strategy is to attack infrequently, but with precision” .

He also added: “The objective is to project an image of resilience to attract followers. “IS is willing to wait patiently for the right moment to attack. »

Military analyst and former Turkish army colonel Murat Aslan told Al Jazeera that members of the terrorist group “Today they are in Moscow. They were recently in Iran. There will be other attacks, perhaps in other capitals.”