The Islamic State has asked its supporters to target ‘crusaders’ across the world, but especially in the United States, Europe and Israel.
The spokesman for Islamic State Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari in a recorded message uploaded on Telegram praised the attack in Moscow, which killed over 140 people.
“We ask God that you make it to Palestine so you could fight the Jews face to face in an endless religious war,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian investigators said yesterday that they have found proof of “Ukrainian nationalists” in the attack, an allegation that was dismissed by the United States.
Russian officials said that investigation has confirmed that the attackers received “significant amounts of money and cryptocurrency from Ukraine,” which were used in preparing for the crime.
Officials previously said that 11 suspects had been arrested, including four who allegedly carried out the attack. Those four, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
Meanwhile, The Kremlin has asked Telegram owner Pavel Durov to be more attentive after the messaging app was allegedly used to help recruit the gunmen who attacked the concert hall.
Durov, who founded Telegram, currently resides in Dubai and has dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France.
The Russian government has said that it has no plans to block the app as of now.
The Telegram owner in response to the Russian government request has said that measures had been taken immediately to stop messages posted by unknown users who appeared to call for new acts of violence.
“As a result, tens of thousands of attempts to send such messages were intercepted and thousands of users taking part in this flashmob came up against a permanent block on their Telegram accounts,” Durov wrote.
With inputs from AP
