RSS
At Least 133 Killed in Moscow Shooting, Islamic State Claims Responsibility
Members of the Russian Emergencies Ministry clear rubble at the Crocus City Hall concert venue after a deadly attack, outside Moscow, Russia, March 23, 2024. Photo: Russian Emergencies Ministry/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Moscow Friday evening saw the nation’s largest terrorist attack in over 10 years, with at least 133 confirmed killed, including three children, and over 140 wounded.
Islamic State claimed responsibility after a squad of gunmen in combat gear opened fire and reportedly set off explosives at Crocus City Hall, a concert hall just outside of the capital. Over 600 people are said to have donated blood for the victims of the attack.
This is what “Crocus City Hall” in Moscow looks now
Rosgvardiya completed the search of parking lots, no explosives and devices were found.
A new group of special forces entered Crocus City Hall. pic.twitter.com/sM0xCeW7WV
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 22, 2024
The attack was followed by evacuation of malls nationwide and security enforcement at the airports and train stations. The weekend’s mass events have been canceled in Moscow and other regions of the country.
At around 11:00 a.m. local time Russian police are said to have captured two suspects. Security forces chased a car with suspects that then overturned, allowing the rest of the alleged squad to escape in the forest, Rosgvardia spokesperson and the Russian Duma depute Alexander Khinshtein said. During the operation, fire exchange was reported.
Later Russian internal intelligence FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov reported to Putin that 11 people have been detained, including 4 suspected terrorists, said the Kremlin statement.
FSB claimed that the suspects planned to cross the Russia-Ukraine border and had “relevant contacts” in Ukraine.
According to the FSB, the terrorists involved in the attack at Crocus City Hall attempted to flee toward the Russian-Ukrainian border
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) March 23, 2024
According to a Russian oppositional media outlet Meduza citing its sources in the government, the Kremlin has distributed instructions to the state-controlled media to highlight presence of the “possible Ukrainian trace” in the incident reporting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin broke the silence 20 hours after the tragedy, vowing to provide help to all those who suffered in the attack. He echoed the claim that the gunmen were moving towards Ukraine.
“Our common duty now is to be together in one ranks. No one will be able to sow panic and discord in our society,” stated Putin.
Крупнейший теракт в Москве. Теракт, о котором предупреждали. Но ФСБ были слишком заняты борьбой с политиками, активистами и журналистами. На террористов времени не хватило.
pic.twitter.com/YQGKrzc0Xz
— Maria Pevchikh (@pevchikh) March 22, 2024
If it is established that the terrorist attack was carried out by “terrorists of the Kyiv regime,” it is impossible to deal with them and “their ideological inspirers” differently, added Medvedev.
Security officers are storming the Crocus City Hall building where several attackers have barricaded themselves.
: Beware, News pic.twitter.com/ypNuf1Z6D2
— Novaya Gazeta Europe (@novayagazeta_en) March 22, 2024
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak promptly reacted to the allegations: “Let’s be straight about this: Ukraine had absolutely nothing to do with these events.”
“We have a full-scale, all-out war with the Russian regular army and with the Russian Federation as a country. And regardless of everything, everything will be decided on the battlefield,” he added.
A representative of a pro-Ukraine Russian armed group Freedom of Russia Legion told Novaya Gazeta Europe: “It obviously wasn’t us.”
Photos from the scene of the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall building pic.twitter.com/9afx4RFSzj
— S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y (@Sprinterfactory) March 23, 2024
Some also drew attention the fact that on March 8, the United States warned about the possibility of a terrorist attacks in Russia within 48 hours. Putin then labeled it as “blackmail.”
After the incident, Washington denied having intelligence on any specific terrorist plans. “The images are just horrible and just hard to watch, and our thoughts obviously are going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack,” said the White House spokesperson John Kirby.
According to reports citing a U.S. official, American intelligence could confirm the Islamic State was behind the attack.
U.S. Republican Senator Mitt Romney also said: “The intentional targeting and murder of civilians is vile and evil regardless of the perpetrators – Putin against Ukrainians and terrorists against the Russians. Today’s massacre in Moscow is tragic.”
Germany, France, Italy, Japan, India, Georgia Venezuela, Cuba and other countries as well as Afghanistan’s Taliban all condemned the attack and expressed their condolences to the victims.
The death toll in the Moscow Crocus City Hall terror attack has reportedly risen to 62, Russian forces are working to recover bodies from the unburnt portions of the building.
Multiple people reportedly died from smoke inhalation after being trapped by the fire. pic.twitter.com/pUK4pIy0XZ
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 22, 2024
Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said: “All those involved in this crime must be found and brought to justice.”
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned “in the strongest possible terms today’s terrorist attack at a concert hall outside Moscow, in which at least 40 people were reportedly killed and over 100 others injured,” his spokesperson Farhan Haq said in a statement. Guterres “conveys his deep condolences to the bereaved families and the people and the Government of the Russian Federation,” added Haq.
Another video from today’s shooting at the “Crocus City Hall” in #Moscow pic.twitter.com/g0xD7b6PFO
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 22, 2024
The post At Least 133 Killed in Moscow Shooting, Islamic State Claims Responsibility first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials
FILE PHOTO: The atomic symbol and the Iranian flag are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
i24 News – Iranian and Iran-affiliated media claimed on Saturday that the Islamic Republic had obtained a trove of “strategic and sensitive” Israeli intelligence materials related to Israel’s nuclear facilities and defense plans.
“Iran’s intelligence apparatus has obtained a vast quantity of strategic and sensitive information and documents belonging to the Zionist regime,” Iran’s state broadcaster said, referring to Israel in the manner accepted in those Muslim or Arab states that don’t recognize its legitimacy. The statement was also relayed by the Lebanese site Al-Mayadeen, affiliated with the Iran-backed jihadists of Hezbollah.
The reports did not include any details on the documents or how Iran had obtained them.
The intelligence reportedly included “thousands of documents related to that regime’s nuclear plans and facilities,” it added.
According to the reports, “the data haul was extracted during a covert operation and included a vast volume of materials including documents, images, and videos.”
The report comes amid high tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, over which it is in talks with the US administration of President Donald Trump.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached an all-time high since the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Gaza war, including Iranian rocket fire on Israel and Israeli aerial raids in Iran that devastated much of the regime’s air defenses.
Israel, which regards the prospect of the antisemitic mullah regime obtaining a nuclear weapon as an existential threat, has indicated it could resort to a military strike against Iran’s installations should talks fail to curb uranium enrichment.
The post Iranian Media Claims Obtaining ‘Sensitive’ Israeli Intelligence Materials first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz looks on, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
The Israeli military has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage who had been held in Gaza since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Saturday.
Nattapong Pinta’s body was held by a Palestinian terrorist group called the Mujahedeen Brigades, and was recovered from the area of Rafah in southern Gaza, Katz said. His family in Thailand has been notified.
Pinta, an agricultural worker, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border where a quarter of the population was killed or taken hostage during the Hamas attack that triggered the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s military said Pinta had been abducted alive and killed by his captors, who had also killed and taken to Gaza the bodies of two more Israeli-American hostages that were retrieved earlier this week.
There was no immediate comment from the Mujahedeen Brigades, who have previously denied killing their captives, or from Hamas. The Israeli military said the Brigades were still holding the body of another foreign national. Only 20 of the 55 remaining hostages are believed to still be alive.
The Mujahedeen Brigades also held and killed Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, according to Israeli authorities. Their bodies were returned during a two-month ceasefire, which collapsed in March after the two sides could not agree on terms for extending it to a second phase.
Israel has since expanded its offensive across the Gaza Strip as US, Qatari and Egyptian-led efforts to secure another ceasefire have faltered.
US-BACKED AID GROUP HALTS DISTRIBUTIONS
The United Nations has warned that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade of the enclave, with the rate of young children suffering from acute malnutrition nearly tripling.
Aid distribution was halted on Friday after the US-and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said overcrowding had made it unsafe to continue operations. It was unclear whether aid had resumed on Saturday.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral. It says it has provided around 9 million meals so far.
The Israeli military said on Saturday that 350 trucks of humanitarian aid belonging to U.N. and other international relief groups were transferred this week via the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza.
The war erupted after Hamas-led terrorists took 251 hostages and killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the October 7, 2023 attack, Israel’s single deadliest day.
The post Israel Retrieves Body of Thai Hostage from Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say
Palestinians carry aid supplies which they received from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in the central Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed/File Photo
The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
The post US Mulls Giving Millions to Controversial Gaza Aid Foundation, Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login