The other big news on Saturday….

By now most everyone who lives above ground has heard about the horrific terrorist attack in Moscow…..but for those that have been under a rock….

While firefighters continued to pull bodies from the rubble and put out the lingering flames Saturday after a terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall, people came to the site to leave flowers and teddy bears in honor of the victims. Questions about how such an attack, which killed more than 100 people and injured more than 150, could happen were mixed with expressions of grief and concerns about the future.

Some Russians wondered about the Russian security forces’ inability to prevent the attack. “Why is it that they say that there were warnings from foreign security services, but our services were completely indifferent?” asked a woman in Moscow. “How can this happen in 2024?” Another woman pointed out that the government seems to concentrate on watching dissidents. “There are cameras everywhere that can trace opposition people going to a rally, and they are also stopped in the metro,” she said. “Does it mean that cameras are targeted on people who carry a book … but you can carry a bomb or a Kalashnikov, and that will be OK?”

The group that carried out this attack is known as ‘ISIS-K’….who are these barbaric bunch?

Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.

One of the most active regional affiliates of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018. The Taliban and U.S. forces inflicted heavy losses.

But the United States sees the group as an ongoing threat. General Michael Kurilla, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was quickly developing the ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia. He predicted it would be able to attack U.S. and Western interests outside Afghanistan “in as little as six months and with little to no warning.”

Attacks within the U.S. itself were less likely, he said.

 

The United States has said its ability to develop intelligence against extremist groups in Afghanistan such as ISIS-K has been reduced since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country in 2021. The U.S. military has said it can see the “broad contours” of an impending attack, but does not have the specific detail it did previously.

 

(reuters.com)