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Russia Mourning Worst Terror Attack In Decades

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Russia saw massive expressions of grief Sunday as the official death toll of shootings at a concert hall near Moscow rose to at least 137.

The wounded nation observed an official day of mourning with seas of flowers, tricolor flags waving at half-mast, television announcers wearing black, and entertainment and sports events canceled.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had ordered the mourning period, pledged to find all those responsible for Russia’s worst terror attack in decades.

The Islamic State group, or ISIS, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack, but Putin has asserted that some on “the Ukrainian side” had prepared to spirit them across the border.

Ukraine has repeatedly denied any role in the attack, which Putin also blamed on “international terrorism.”

With some 11 people being detained and an investigation still ongoing, survivors were left grieving their loved ones.

Flowers and children’s toys piled up near the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, where four armed men burst in on Friday just before Soviet-era rock group Picnic was to perform its hit, Afraid of Nothing.

POSTING FOOTAGE

ISIS enthusiastically posted video footage of the massacre, with young children, teenagers, and women among the victims.

The group had long been upset about Russia’s involvement in Syria, where its forces support authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad in his battle against ISIS.

It also condemned what it views as Russia’s discrimination of Muslims. The United States said it had shared intelligence with Russia about a pending terror attack, but Putin reportedly rejected these suggestions as Western provocations.

Yet Russian authorities did say this month they prevented a potential massacre by ISIS at a Moscow synagogue, even though the Kremlin earlier gave red-carpet treatment to delegates of Hamas, deemed a terrorist organization by Israel and most of its allies.

The Federal Security Bureau said at the time that ISIS fighters tried “to commit a terrorist act against one of the Jewish religious institutions in Moscow” but that they had been “neutralized.” However, three weeks later, ISIS was apparently still able to attack the concert hall, though Putin did not mention the group.

The head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, reported to Putin that those detained early on Saturday concerning the concert hall shootings included the four gunmen.

Russia’s interior ministry made clear that investigations were ongoing to identify their detained accomplices. The Russian interior ministry said the four gunmen were all “foreign citizens.”

That did little to ease the pain of survivors and others mourning their loved ones.