23 March 2024, 23:10
Terror act at Crocus was one of largest in 30 years in Moscow region
Since 1999, up to the events at the Crocus City Hall, there were five terror acts in the Moscow region, in which more than 40 people perished.
On March 22, armed men broke into the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region; the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) has classified the incident as a terror act. According to the latest data, 133 people perished there.
According to the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot", prior to the shooting of visitors to the Crocus City Hall, in Russia's modern history, at least five terror acts were committed in the Moscow region, in which over 40 people perished. Authorities linked all these terror acts with the activities of illegal armed formations (IAFs) from Northern Caucasus.
These terror acts include explosions of residential buildings in Guryanov Street (106 people perished) and in Kashirskoye Shosse (124 dead) in September 1999; the terror act on Dubrovka during the "Nord-Ost" musical in October 2002 (130 dead hostages); an explosion in the Metro between the Avtozavodskaya and Paveletskaya Stations in February 2004 (42 casualties), as well as a double terror act in the Lubyanka and Park Kultury Metro Stations in March 2010 (41 casualties).
A close in victim count – 37 casualties and 180 wounded persons – was the terror act at Moscow Domodedovo Airport committed on January 24, 2011. A suicide bomber, whom investigators later named as Magomed Evloev, triggered an explosive device. Doku Umarov, the head of the "Imarat Kavkaz"*, took responsibility for that terror act.
Since 2000, there have been 87 terror acts in Russia involving 133 suicide bombers, including at least 52 women. One of them was the terror act committed on July 5, 2003, in Moscow. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up at the "Krylya" (Wings) Rock Festival in Tushino, killing 16 people.
Zaur Farniev, a journalist, has noted that for the first time in the last 20 years, the death toll at the Crocus City Hall can be compared with one in Beslan. "This is the first time since Beslan that there have been so many victims. And the feelings are the same," he wrote in his Telegram channel.
On September 1, 2004, militants took 1128 hostages and placed than into the gym of School No. 1 in Beslan; overall, 334 people died, including 186 children.
*A terrorist organization operating in Northern Caucasus. On February 8, 2010, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the "Imarat Kavkaz" as a terrorist organization and banned its activities in the territory of Russia as its members planned and committed terror acts aiming to break Russia's territorial integrity and incite national and religious hatred.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 22, 2024 at 11:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot