As per standard procedure, on Friday morning the Islamic State, through its official magazine al-Naba, returned to the event of the week which in this case is the massacre last Friday in the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Moscow, where 144 people died, hundreds of wounded without counting the missing who could be more than one hundred. As already done immediately after the attack (in total this is the fifth pronouncement), the Islamic State has once again claimed responsibility for the facts, ridiculing the Kremlin which continues to evoke imaginary plots so as not to admit the complete debacle of the entire Russian security apparatus which, moreover, he had been warned last March 7 by the USA that something was in preparation. Helping the Russians in spreading an alternative truth is now also the Turkish government, itself an expert in media manipulation, which this morning through Omer Celik, spokesperson for the Turkish governing party AKP, stated on the private television broadcaster NTV: «Such an organization cannot operate without the support of some country's intelligence. The truth is that ISIS is not capable of carrying out an action of this magnitude on its own. Such terrorist acts have a supporter.” If there weren't so many deaths we would be laughing at sentences like these.
Then, also on Friday, a Tajikistan security source told the Reuters that during the week, Tajikistan's National Security Committee “arrested nine individuals suspected of having links to those allegedly responsible for the shooting at a concert hall in Russia, as well as to the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K).” All nine arrests took place on Monday in the city of Vakhdat and the detainees were transferred to the capital Dushanbe, the source said. That the Kremlin's lies have short legs is shown not only by ISIS's claims but also by history, as he wrote a few days ago Le Figaro tells how Russia has always been one of the strongest voices against terrorism but also one of the most affected countries in the world outside of Africa and the Middle East. In fact, between 1970 and 2023, six of the twenty deadliest attacks occurred on Russian soil: in Budyonnovsk in 1995 (121 deaths), Moscow in 2002 (130 deaths), Beslan in 2004 (334 deaths), Rostov-sur-le -Don in 2004 (90 deaths) and now Crocus City Hall in 2024 (137 deaths). As the French newspaper writes, «in this classification we can also include the series of attacks in 1999 (294 deaths), attributed to the Chechens but of which the Russian services could have been the authors».
The publication of al-Naba gives us the opportunity to make two observations. The first is that contrary to what many have written (and continue to do so) the attack in Moscow was claimed by the Islamic State and not by its offshoot Wilahyat Khorasan (Iskp or Isis-K), which has no autonomy, let alone for something as big as the Crocus City Hall bombing. This is not a minimal difference because writing that the attack was carried out and claimed by the ISKP is not only false but demonstrates little knowledge of the dynamics that go through this terrorist organization which makes its credibility one of the cornerstones of its action. Given the origin of the people arrested and tortured by the Russians, it is highly probable that ISIS Khorasan supplied the attackers defined as “inghimasi” (i.e. martyrs, also called shahid and istishhadi, “seekers of martyrdom”), but it is not certain. Just as it is not certain that Sanaullah Ghafari, alias Shahab al-Muhajir, born in 1994, an Afghan graduate, is still at the head of this obscure branch of ISIS founded in 2014 by some Pakistani Taliban who fled to Afghanistan and escaped from other terrorist groups. in engineering, who was appointed emir in 2020. It is not certain because the terrorist on whom the US has placed a ten million dollar bounty may have died in June 2023 while traveling through the mountainous province of Kunar. Voice of America (VOA) wrote at the time: “The leader of a regional affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist group was reportedly killed in Afghanistan this week in an area along the border with Pakistan, officials confirmed to Voa intelligence officials from both countries. The death came after Taliban security forces targeted him in an intelligence-led operation. Six more IS-K operatives were killed in subsequent raids in the area, Taliban sources said without providing further details.”
Since that day nothing more has ever been heard of Sanaullah Ghafari, just as the Islamic State has never confirmed his death nor denied it. Now if Ghafari is really dead we don't know who the new emir of the ISKP is and this also contributes to the aura of mystery around this group. The same thing goes for the Ansar al-Sunna (ISIS Mozambique) who for years have been putting the hydrocarbon-rich area of Cabo Delgado on fire. As mentioned, there are many mysteries surrounding this organization which is active in Central Asia and which refers to Khorasan (the land of the sun), a historical-geographical region which includes parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and also Iran and better it would be to be cautious when trying to recount his misdeeds.
