(Dan Tri) – The representative of the notorious terrorist group self-proclaimed Islamic State called on its supporters to attack Western countries and allies after claiming responsibility for the terrorist attack on the Russian theater.
Firefighters put out a fire at the Crocus City theater in an attack claimed by IS (Photo: Reuters).
Reuters reported that IS spokesman Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari `praised` the brutal terrorist attack on a theater in Moscow last week, which left 143 people dead.
In a recorded message broadcast on the Telegram messaging application on March 28, this terrorist even called on IS affiliates to target `crusaders` everywhere, especially
IS Afghanistan branch (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the deadliest terrorist attack in the past 20 years in Russia at Crocus City theater, Moscow on March 22.
Earlier this week, ISIS-K’s media channel posted a message warning of continued attacks against Russia.
However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on March 27 that Moscow had `difficult to believe` that IS was capable of carrying out such an attack.
Russian investigators said on March 28 that they had found evidence that the gunmen in the concert hall were linked to `Ukrainian nationalists`, an assertion immediately rejected by the US.
Ukraine announced that it was not involved in the incident.
Russia arrested 11 suspects in the first 24 hours since the attack, of which 7 were from the Central Asian country of Tajikistan and the rest were from Kyrgyzstan.
ISIS-K has repeatedly expressed its ambition to attack beyond its borders, emphasizing that `Islam’s territory was never limited to Afghanistan but is much broader.`
On the other hand, the terrorist attack in Russia also shows the threat from the Telegram messaging application.
The Kremlin on March 28 called on Telegram owner Pavel Durov to pay more attention after Russian media said the messaging app was used to help recruit gunmen to attack the theater.
Mr. Durov – a person born in Russia – is the founder of Telegram and this application is currently headquartered in Dubai.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia has no intention of blocking Telegram but urged Mr. Durov to pay attention to activities on this application.
`We expect more attention from Pavel Durov, because this resource can become a tool in the hands of terrorists and be used for terrorist purposes,` Peskov said.
Mr. Durov later said measures were taken immediately to stop what `a series of unknown users` posted messages calling for new acts of violence.
`Tens of thousands of attempts to send such messages have been blocked and thousands of accounts permanently blocked,` he claimed.
Mr. Durov said that from next week, Telegram will use artificial intelligence mechanisms to filter content.
