Members of the Russian Emergencies Ministry carry out search-and-rescue operations at the Crocus City Hall concert venue after a shooting attack and fire, outside Moscow, Russia, on March 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia on May 24 admitted for the first time that Islamic State coordinated the deadly concert hall attack in Moscow in March.

Moscow concert hall shooting updates

“In the course of the investigation… it has been established that the preparations, the financing, the attack and the retreat of the terrorists were coordinated via the internet by members of Khorasan Province (IS-K),” a branch of IS active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Alexander Bortnikov, the head of FSB, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

IS has claimed responsibility on multiple occasions for the March 22 attack which killed more than 140 people, but Moscow has repeatedly tried to link Ukraine and the West to the attack.