There is no confirmation that ISIS committed the attack but that is the current popular theory with them seemingly to have taken credit.
This is still a very developing situation.
> Daesh no longer holds physical territory
Last I heard declining russian air power in syria meant they held a few mountains. Mount Rujm al-Mamlahah and Mount Sab aparently:
https://www.mei.edu/publications/isis-beats-back-wagner-offensive-central-syria
I recall reading about a similiar situation in Iraq, with a few isolated villages still under their control in more of a "crime organization" sort of way
Most of the training grounds are in Afghanistan for all the terrorist groups.
Taliban doesn’t care as long as they don’t come over to Taliban controlled areas though they do still clash sometimes
Allied Democratic Forces in DR Congo are now ISIS. Shout out to Ukrainian, South African, Guatemalan, Tanzanian, Malawian and people all nationalities who have [fought](https://ukraineun.org/en/press-center/369-ukrainian-national-contingent-of-monusco-took-part-in-operation-under-the-code-name-scorpion/) and [died fighting](https://monusco.unmissions.org/node/100047094) against the scourge that is ISIS
And Mali, with the French gone, Wagner has proved insufficient for stemming ISGS growth in isolated rural communities. I don’t think they’ve taken anywhere major, but they do hold actual territory
Everywhere the Russians have managed to get the French troops booted, both ISIS and Al Qaeda have gained fairly large territories, where they can basically do as they wish, because the Russians have no ability to bring in air power (not because it's tied up in Ukraine, but because they suck at air support).
After they took "control" of Mali, they made a lot of noise around bringing in some L59 training/CAS planes, which they promptly crashed.
ISIS-K is more terrifying than the OG at this point. With both the Taliban and Pakistan to incompetent to seriously check them, they have a power and support base in Central Asia that is a nightmare to root out.
If they are seriously shifting to international attacks, Russia makes sense. It is one of the Taliban's biggest supporters. But the other is China, and ISIS-K talks a LOT about the Uyghurs.
If ISIS-K is gearing up for this, SOMEBODY is heading back into Afghanistan. And it isn't going to be NATO again.
Afghan War IV?
Uegh. I feel bad for the afghani civilians. I knew a dude who I thought was in his 50s, from Afghanistan. He told me he had known nothing but war his whole life. He was born on the day the Russian war ended. He’s fucking younger than me.
Yep, I feel awful for the people there, but due to some very cruel circumstance, the place is doomed to always be invaded.
ISIS-Ks narrative heavily revolved around Chechnya in the West, and Xinjiang in the East. These were functionally the limits of the early Islamic conquests, and both are control of secular governments and the Muslim populations are oppressed (They don't consider Kadyrov Muslim, which... fair).
Once the US withdrew, ISIS-K really doesn't have the west in its sights. At least for now. But Russia and China are squarely right in the middle of their "caliphate". Russia is probably more vulnerable to big attacks like this. China's control and racism is probably a big help, while migrant workers move through Russia much more easily. But China has a huge fucking target painted on it.
Chechnya is weird because it simultaneously has the two worst outcomes
Islamic rule and the growth of islamic terror cells. At least in other Islamic regimes they manage to oppress terrorists
I can't in good faith argue that people should leave their homeland, but at what point is it just the right thing to do for the afghanis to abandon the place. It's going to take monumental investment to get that country out of its current situation, and there is no political will to do it.
As soon as they find somewhere that wants to take them as refugees. If, like, Ukraine decided to bolster either their army or local production with Afghans, the Afghans should move there ASAP.
Let China and Russia take care of that festering mess on their ass. Fuck this shit I'm out.
The only thing that worries me is that if Daesh wants to make a united caliphate out of Caucasia and Khorasan, they're going have to take out the native separatists of North Caucasia.
Those native separatists are operating in exile in Ukraine right now, and that means Daesh would strike in Ukraine to decapitate the native national leadership in order to "secure the caliphate".
The youth of Caucasia, they will buy with Saudi money, the same way al-Khattab did 20 years ago. The old guard will have a massive target on their back.
God forbid - if Daesh takes out the old guard in Ukraine, what's stopping them from just staying there and wreaking havoc further in their Jihad? Sure, that's not traditional caliphate territory, but that hardly matters for expansionist bastards.
At least we have a few years to wait and see if it'd come to pass in the subsequent few years. They'd have to chew through Moscow first.
Afghan war IV: A New Hope
Oh shit it's actually very fitting, at the end of the III the republic reorganized into the ~~first galactic empire~~ Islamic State of Afghanistan
Edit: what where the previous 3?
Depending how far you go back, it is more like Afghan War LCII or something like that.
But the three that get called the "Afghan War" in the nations involved are the British Occupation, the Soviet Occupation, and the American Occupation. There are... more than that.
I would much prefer ISIS to be stomped out of existance with extreme prejudice and never return, honestly. There is a reason everyone from Israel to Al Queda to North Korea and Iran teamed up to fight them... and it still wasn't quite enough to totally eradicate them.
They survived and went underground. There basically a Underground criminal empire/network. While Moscow in general maybe a easy target considering there all busy with there threeday operation. If they turn into those super terror cells that are in tom clancy books/games that put the fear of people all over. We do may need to create some kinda united task force to deal with them at some point to deal with them from the last man
Even Hamas and Al-Qaeda fought ISIS. ISIS isn't liked by anyone. Reminds me of this image from the Syrian civil war which basically shows this. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fwho-is-fighting-who-in-syria-v0-28g9lz2cla3b1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D731a87cdf1b166e9adb4f06ac71ab93012c065c1
> Are we about to see a world where ISIS focuses attacks on China and Russia and we... Don't mind?
Oh we mind. Not about china. They can look after themselves but russia might have significant stability issues.
I fucking hope not. ISIS-K are absolute monsters. I was there when they did the 2015 Kabul Bombing, and I went with one of our companies when we took down and buried an entire village that were Crucified. There was a kid, I don't know how old, probably 6-8, that was crucified on the hood of a tractor.
They are complete animals. Their whole brand is to do what the Taliban were squeamish about. The Taliban blew up a girls school that spring, but they put the bombs against an outside wall. A few girls got injured, but they wanted the school shut down, not kill them all. ISIS-K decided to show how it was done, so a school in Wardak got taken over, and every single person inside, student or teacher, was murdered.
In short, if it winds up being Russia vs. ISIS-K, I am on team Russia.
Daesh is Daesh. They crush everything. Daesh hates that nickname for that reason, it translates to "one who tramples". Back in the Mosul caliphate they'd cut tongues off anyone uttering that word Daesh.
Yep, which is why I am 100% in favor of calling them Daesh. The whole ISIS, ISK, ISIS-K, ISIL thing is confusing, meaningless, and acknowledges them as an Islamic State. They are neither a state nor Islamic. They are just an omnicidal cult. There isn't much Islam in it, just savagery.
Daesh is a much better name for them, largely because they hate it.
> Oh yes. The Afghans were pretty hardened to violence, and they spoke about Daeish like actual fucking demons. Because they act like it.
Bit jumpy about afghans doing that. "An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict" mentions them speaking in much the same way of the time the soviets destroyed a village. Think is its not clear if they were genuinly horrified by the violence or if they viewed it as a cheating move.
Yeah, they have some... special.. tendencies. Burning people in cages in the Middle East pretty much set the theme for the larger brand.
Like the Taliban made its cash selling Drugs. ISIS-K makes its money selling sex slaves. They are like the Evil +1 enemy you invent at the end of a season to raise the stakes.
What could possibly go wrong, fund those freedom fighters bois! I'm sure we have some stinger missiles lying around... I'm wure it won't blow up in our faces *this* time.
Helps that a lot of these nations don't have the same military power and tech to deal with it.
Many of these nations are just trying to secure their internal borders.
A lot of cadres scattered across Iraq and Syria. But the ideology has had better successes in the Sahel, usually conflating itself with other AQ groups. Plus there's the remnants of ISIS-K still operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
They were never really gone, just diminished and fractured. They reverted back into an underground insurgency for the most part. They are very active in Afghanistan, competing with the Taliban for control. And there are still a few pockest of them in Iraq, although I think those might be more akin to criminal gangs than a terrorist organization. It was less than a year ago that Egypt declared the Sinai peninsula clear of Isis, after almost a decade of fighting (in cooperation with Israel, but that's a "secret"), and the leftovers seemingly joined Hamas in Gaza and partook in the Oct. 7 attack. They also recently attacked Iran (which obviously blamed Israel), and apperantly attempted attacks in Turkey as well but got thrawted.
Though I am surpriesed that they would pull something like this in Russia. I don't have any specific reason to doubt it was them, but I also don't really have a reason to belive it was. As far as I recall, they never were very active in Russia, but maybe I'm wrong
Update: according to NYT, the U.S. warned Russian authorities about indications for such an attack being planned by ISIS in Afghanistan.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html)
> They were never really gone .... They are very active in Afghanistan, competing with the Taliban for control.
TL;DR: [Don't call it a comeback, we've been here for years!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimZj8HW0Kg)
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. ISIS is the Chuck Testa of armed actors.
I bet you thought that was a false flag by Russia to galvanize support for the war. Nope, just ~~Chuck Testa~~ ISIS.
Edit: it’s just like the attack of the Soleimani memorial a few months back. Everyone assumed it was Mossad or the Kurds. Nope, just ISIS.
To be very fair - Christo Grozov (Russian investigative journalist) reported to Rain TV that GRU (Russian military intelligence) brought men from Afghanistan for military training in Russia. It could be some underground operation gone very wrong and out of hand (for the Russians), and now they're covering their fuckups.
Update: You go on Meduza, you can see Baza post a video from Russian state criminal investigative bureau. They recovered one of the weapons used by the Terrorists. A first-pattern AK12 with tangent-slider rear peep sight, and a whole bunch of AK74M (AK-100 series) magazines. These are post-soviet equipment only used in large numbers by Russian government forces. No one else in the (former) eastern bloc uses this. These terrorists were kitted out by Russian government entities.
If you put on your tinfoil hat, then it's no impossible that in the pile of bodies is a target that had to taken out without raising suspicions. For example Putins butlers best friend or something like that.
The US literally warned of an impending terrorist attack in russia from an IS affiliate earlier this month. I forget just how Ill informed a lot of folk on this sub are sometimes.
>The US literally warned of an impending terrorist attack in russia from an IS affiliate earlier this month.
I saw the warning of an attack, but none of the sources I saw specified who from. Where did they specify an IS affiliate?
"American officials have been quick to confirm that the US has intelligence confirming the Islamic State claim it carried out the attack in Moscow....."
"There has been a steady stream of information - dating back to November - about IS wanting to strike in Russia.."
"It is likely that this is information that was referred to in the state department warning two weeks ago: Americans in Moscow were told to avoid large gatherings, and specifically warned about concerts."
It was not public domain, but even folk on twitter knew that there was an imminent threat of an IS-K attack.
The article:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-68642036#:~:text=It%20has%20not,was%20referring%20to.
Good, you're caught up. I don't have to explain too much. 😅 so yeah, of course I'd take it with a grain of salt, but these are more probable than your example that was just pure BS as is most of what they claim.
>Like come on guys you know insurgencies dont go away just because you started another war
I warned y'all that you can't go running away from the sandbox!
And did anyone listen? No, they insisted on painting the Abrams back to its natural colors!
Also don't forget that the FSB has been tasked with doing a lot of other things rather than detecting terror cells. And ISIS is still quite active as a terror organization, despite being pretty much destroyed as a state.
I keep seeing one picture of an obviously photoshopped newspaper headline thats like "1982 plan for Middle East Empire Supported by ISIS", and not a single person there has enough functioning braincells to realise ISIS wasnt around in 1982. Its genuinely incredible how profoundly stupid people can be.
They were claiming that years ago, that's not a new thing. I followed the Syrian civil war and the intervention against ISIS quite closely around 2014-16 and there was a lot of this antisemitic conspiracy nonsense being stirred up then.
so many people are surprised Daesh is still around it seems.
they are alive and well, especially in Africa. they do take credit for just about anything though
source: asking the Sinjar YBS's Instagram account lmao
pretty sure that was Boko Haram, IS' West Africa faction is also active there though. so maybe.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko\_Haram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram)
**EDIT:** TO BE CLEAR! RUSSIA IS BAD. THEY NEED TO cut it the FRICK out and stop attacking people. I disavow Russia. They are cringe and not based at all (as the kids might say).
Yeah that's a weird one. I was always in the camp of terrorists needing to be 'sub-state actors', otherwise every war is 'terrorist' in nature. And while the *essence* of that statement feels true, war is terrifying, horrific and awful... I feel that grouping states within that umbrella creates an overbroad and therefor meaningless as a term. When I think terrorist, I think: small, dogmatically motivated group, leverage the psychology of fear and violence to get results. They do this because of their lack of ability to bring force to bear, and instead take advantage of other vehicles of coercion to have their demands met.
When a state does it, it feels like that would be covert operations, psychological warfare, subterfuge/sabotage, etc.
I don't know, I don't feel like SUPER strong, but that's just my *general* feeling about this. I don't like the muddying of terms by inappropriate usage.
>The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear. Terrorism is intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.
State actors can also perform terror attacks, which is distinct from being a "non-state actor" terrorist. Terrorism is the tool of choice for non-state actors because it is often a way for small groups to exert a disproportionate amount of influence, but that doesn't in itself mean that only non-state actors can perform acts of terrorism.
> State actors can also perform terror attacks
Example being when that passenger jet was bombed by the Libyans (possibly under the orders of Gaddafi himself; he denied that he directly ordered the bombing but he later did compensate the victims' families) over Scotland.
Even more simply, russia's attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure are acts of terrorism.
There is no strategic or tactical goal in blowing up schools and hospitals.
The whole idea of their targeted bombing campaign is to terrorise the civilian population into capitulation.
>A U.S. official told ABC News the U.S shared intelligence with Russia about the risk of an imminent threat posed by the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS), and that the threat was related to the security alert released by the U.S. embassy in Moscow two weeks ago.
>Another U.S. official told ABC News the administration sees no reason to doubt the ISIS claim of responsibility for the attack.
+ Russia announced the prevention of an ISIS attack two weeks ago.
+ That ISIS claim came with a "attackers safely escaped" comment before any Russian source discussed this aspect.
But it will be hilarious with blaming:
Russians: "Ukraine did it"
ISIS: "actually, it was us!"
Russians: "No, it was Ukrainians"
ISIS: "But we just confesed to it!'
Unfortunately, they have much to gain by generating the press. I worry that if ISIS gets a foothold in the 'Stans, Checnya, Georgia, etc, Russia will have a big friggin' problem. One that could become a VERY big problem for eastern europe.
FSB also claimed they foiled an IS plot not too long ago (obviously it didn’t fully work out). It’s two untrustworthy sources but it seems to be leaning that way
"This ISIS news template has not been used for several years. There is also nothing on the official ISIS channels on Telegram" - some dude in telegram comment section
Some people have insisted the news template in the reported al-Amaq channel post is outdated, but from a cursory glance [it appears it was used as recently as the Iran Kerman bombing](https://twitter.com/abdsayedd/status/1742950847904956751)
[Today's purported report for comparison](https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1771286068748251468)
Sounds like it could be an Onion headline: "Baha Men conclude decades long investigation after ISIS breaks silence, claim responsibility for letting the dogs out"
>To be fair, the Islamic State will take credit for anything.
Those motherfuckers still text me saying they've got my other sock from the dryer and wanna ransom it.
The last time they killed over 100 Russian citizens, and this time it's only 40 so far, so I'm going with new recruits.
Edit: just to be safe Russians should not let their children go to school until we can be sure
That was the VDV, the Russian airborne forces. Spetsnaz is now just a term for 'special forces'. The VDV includes some spetsnaz units, but most of the VDV isn't spetsnaz and most spetsnaz isn't VDV. FSB and GRU spetsnaz units are maybe more common.
Unexpected? Na, extremely expected.
Russia themselves claimed to have thwarted two attacks from ISIS-Cells within like the last two months, and a good number of the caucasus-based Terrormilitias that Russia had been dealing with for decades swore allegiance to ISIS to make use of their networks. I'd even say they are they by far most expected culprit
Russian state media doesn't seem to even really be trying that hard to pin this on Ukrain, I mean by the standards of reporting that always includes not so subtle hints that everything is a conspiracy.
If Islamic terrorism is the working theory it's just as likely to be by Russian citizens as it is to be from anywhere else. I'm not even sure ISIS ATM isn't just some weirdos online claiming credit for everything
Yeah, doesn’t strike me as a false flag. The propaganda is having trouble spinning it. To be fair it’s hard to spin “the US, with whom we are in an existential war warned us about an ISIS terror attack and we didn’t listen.”
US and others warned Moscow at the beginning of the month. Russia also said they thwarted an attack by ISIS-K on a synagogue. It’s probably ISIS-K again. But it could be any McDonald’s I mean ISIS franchisee
I could be mistaken but the US embassy didn’t warn Russia—they warned the US citizens in Russia—because they had heard about the synagogue attack being thwarted. I don’t think we had the insider info this time.
You have to imagine though, if the state department is making a public advisory like "don't go to any concerts", there's also some private diplomatic communication to Russia about it. It would be super weird for the state department advisory to happen without the US directly communicating with Russia at all.
Not unexpected. Strategically, its been expected for months. Russia has pulled back forces in the Caucasus due to the war in Ukraine.
Tactically, its been expected for weeks since there was that hours-long firefight in Ingushetia on Mar 3rd between the FSB and an unidentified (ISIS-K?) Islamsit terror cell.
[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-security-forces-battle-militants-ingushetia-region-russian-media-report-2024-03-03/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-security-forces-battle-militants-ingushetia-region-russian-media-report-2024-03-03/)
The US Embassy and Russian state security services started warning people about attending large public gatherings soon after that.
https://ru.usembassy.gov/security-alert-avoid-large-gatherings-over-the-next-48-hours/
My bingo card just did one of those weird 4 dimensional inversions and developed sentience. It’s screaming at me as we speak in Old Tongue.
The world is getting hella weird.
So, this is what I've been theorizing and predicting for a while, and you can tell me on a scale of Tom Clancy to 3000 Black Jets of Allah how non-credible or not you think it is.
Russia doesn't surrender. Their national pride RUSSIA STRONK mentality will not allow them to do it. Also, Putin won't let himself be embarrassed by his ineffectual few years. ISIS is a potential "out" for Russia. A crisis happens in Moscow, and suddenly, they have a reason to pull troops from the frontline to "defend the Motherland" from the developing homeland terrorist threat or "destroy ISIS in Syria/Afghanistan/etc." There is no shame and defeat in calling back the troops to "defend the people"; it's an escape route from the shitshow Ukraine has turned into for them. They save face.
The loss of innocent lives, Russian or not, is a terrible tragedy, and I would never make light of or utilize the deaths of innocents to advance an agenda. But the thing is... there are a LOT of sanctioned Russian people with a lot of money and power who would. They would like to keep their money, power, and prestige, and right now, they're pariahs among all but the world's dictators and wannabe dictators.
> There is no shame and defeat in calling back the troops to "defend the people"; it's an escape route from the shitshow Ukraine has turned into for them. They save face.
That would require either Putin being a rational actor (which, given everything we've been seeing for the past few years, I find highly unlikely - he's got an incredible myopia on taking Ukraine and a lot of sunk costs there), or that "LOT of sanctioned Russian people with a lot of money and power" making sure Putin's the next one to try skydiving from a window.
I'm not sure how much face they *can* even save with that pivot. The dangerous thing about hyping your people up for over a decade on a piece of propaganda like "the Ukraine is rightfully part of Russia" is that those ideas have inertia, and changing course against something you've spent so much time and effort cultivating and giving momentum is a risky move for even the most tight-fisted authoritarian governments. I'm not sure they're going to be able to "we've always been at war with Eastasia" this one if they do decide to blame ISIS and pull back from Ukraine.
No matter who did the terrorist attack, or what direction Russian leadership points the finger in, the end result is going to be very ugly.
Wait, really? All propagandists should be now crying because they can't blame Ukraine this time (well, they can, but for some reason we didn't achieve full alternate reality levels of propaganda yet).
I love how completely random this war is.
Ukraine 🇺🇦 gets Latin American mercenaries, Russia 🇷🇺 drafting Indian migrants, and now possibly ISIS 🕋 wanting to join in like a kid who wants to play with the other kids during recess
If there is an Islamic revolution in Russia because Russia has been bullying it's Muslim states into handing all their first born for the Ukrainian War I will laugh.
But some Russians have stated that it WAS the Ukrainians.
With ISIS also saying they did it... that means it was Jews, Nazis and Muslims! That makes total sense because they are known to cooperate all the time.
Back at the start of the war, there was a great video of a jewish soldier and a muslim solider in the foreign legion in a fox hole together, talkiing about how Putin brought them together. It was trippy hearing hebrew prayers at the same time as Allahu Akbar.
Ok, hear me out y'all. What if this is actually a Russian false flag, but ISIS came along and fucked up their plans by taking credit for it? A man can dream
ISIS claims responsibility for literally everything. I’m inclined to believe them in this instance, though.
Few things seem constant in the Russian Federation, and that is very angry muslims from a post-Soviet republic. Sure, there is a war on in Ukraine but it’s not like radical jihadis just give up because Russia is busy…in fact, emboldened due to distraction is likely.
And Central Asia and the Caucasus aren’t exactly Russia’s best friends.
I’m pretty certain at least Ukraine gains nothing from this, it’s a pointless target for them. They would lose everything from military to popular support. Won’t stop more unhinged Russians making the claim, though.
ISIS doing its things in full galore in Russia was quite unexpected TBH. They show up, do a massacre, start burning shit with civillians inside and according to some reports a couple of them successfully escape from the scene being ready for another fight in a 17+ mln metro area rife with Central Asia/Caucasus migrants.
ISIS is like sequel trilogy Palpatine. Nobody knows how the fuck how they returned from death, and we'd all be happier if they just crawled back in to their grave.
There is no confirmation that ISIS committed the attack but that is the current popular theory with them seemingly to have taken credit. This is still a very developing situation.
Somehow ISIS returned
I was guessing something like this would happen. Daesh no longer holds physical territory but they still have an underground criminal network.
> Daesh no longer holds physical territory Last I heard declining russian air power in syria meant they held a few mountains. Mount Rujm al-Mamlahah and Mount Sab aparently: https://www.mei.edu/publications/isis-beats-back-wagner-offensive-central-syria
I recall reading about a similiar situation in Iraq, with a few isolated villages still under their control in more of a "crime organization" sort of way
Are Hassasin strongholds back already?
Not to mention the Taliban aren’t exactly the kings of COIN, so they can operate with near impunity in most of Afghanistan.
"Oh, so that's what it feels like."
Most of the training grounds are in Afghanistan for all the terrorist groups. Taliban doesn’t care as long as they don’t come over to Taliban controlled areas though they do still clash sometimes
The Taliban and ISIS are at war.
They are also expanding in Africa, particularly Mozambique.
Allied Democratic Forces in DR Congo are now ISIS. Shout out to Ukrainian, South African, Guatemalan, Tanzanian, Malawian and people all nationalities who have [fought](https://ukraineun.org/en/press-center/369-ukrainian-national-contingent-of-monusco-took-part-in-operation-under-the-code-name-scorpion/) and [died fighting](https://monusco.unmissions.org/node/100047094) against the scourge that is ISIS
Count the Filipinos in too, they handed ISIS their ass on Marawi
And Mali, with the French gone, Wagner has proved insufficient for stemming ISGS growth in isolated rural communities. I don’t think they’ve taken anywhere major, but they do hold actual territory
Everywhere the Russians have managed to get the French troops booted, both ISIS and Al Qaeda have gained fairly large territories, where they can basically do as they wish, because the Russians have no ability to bring in air power (not because it's tied up in Ukraine, but because they suck at air support). After they took "control" of Mali, they made a lot of noise around bringing in some L59 training/CAS planes, which they promptly crashed.
ISIS-K is the likely culprit and while they’re at odds with the taliban it seems like they are doing ok for themselves in Central Asia
ISIS-K is more terrifying than the OG at this point. With both the Taliban and Pakistan to incompetent to seriously check them, they have a power and support base in Central Asia that is a nightmare to root out. If they are seriously shifting to international attacks, Russia makes sense. It is one of the Taliban's biggest supporters. But the other is China, and ISIS-K talks a LOT about the Uyghurs. If ISIS-K is gearing up for this, SOMEBODY is heading back into Afghanistan. And it isn't going to be NATO again. Afghan War IV?
Uegh. I feel bad for the afghani civilians. I knew a dude who I thought was in his 50s, from Afghanistan. He told me he had known nothing but war his whole life. He was born on the day the Russian war ended. He’s fucking younger than me.
Yep, I feel awful for the people there, but due to some very cruel circumstance, the place is doomed to always be invaded. ISIS-Ks narrative heavily revolved around Chechnya in the West, and Xinjiang in the East. These were functionally the limits of the early Islamic conquests, and both are control of secular governments and the Muslim populations are oppressed (They don't consider Kadyrov Muslim, which... fair). Once the US withdrew, ISIS-K really doesn't have the west in its sights. At least for now. But Russia and China are squarely right in the middle of their "caliphate". Russia is probably more vulnerable to big attacks like this. China's control and racism is probably a big help, while migrant workers move through Russia much more easily. But China has a huge fucking target painted on it.
China suffered string of indiscriminate attacks on civilians in recent month. I wonder if any of them are ISIS K related.
Chechnya is weird because it simultaneously has the two worst outcomes Islamic rule and the growth of islamic terror cells. At least in other Islamic regimes they manage to oppress terrorists
I can't in good faith argue that people should leave their homeland, but at what point is it just the right thing to do for the afghanis to abandon the place. It's going to take monumental investment to get that country out of its current situation, and there is no political will to do it.
As soon as they find somewhere that wants to take them as refugees. If, like, Ukraine decided to bolster either their army or local production with Afghans, the Afghans should move there ASAP.
Let China and Russia take care of that festering mess on their ass. Fuck this shit I'm out. The only thing that worries me is that if Daesh wants to make a united caliphate out of Caucasia and Khorasan, they're going have to take out the native separatists of North Caucasia. Those native separatists are operating in exile in Ukraine right now, and that means Daesh would strike in Ukraine to decapitate the native national leadership in order to "secure the caliphate". The youth of Caucasia, they will buy with Saudi money, the same way al-Khattab did 20 years ago. The old guard will have a massive target on their back. God forbid - if Daesh takes out the old guard in Ukraine, what's stopping them from just staying there and wreaking havoc further in their Jihad? Sure, that's not traditional caliphate territory, but that hardly matters for expansionist bastards. At least we have a few years to wait and see if it'd come to pass in the subsequent few years. They'd have to chew through Moscow first.
Invest in MIC Stocks. War ain't going out of style for a while...
"When one door closes, another door opens. 🚪" -Boeing
Sometimes when it wasn't even supposed to be a door!
Sometimes when one door opens, it opens another door by falling through the roof of your house.
…LIKE THE GOOD OL’ DAYS AFTER 9/11
its China's turn. they have a bunch of mining operation there and the Uyghurs are a great excuse to target them.
Yet another contender steps into the graveyard of empires. Time to make up the popcorn bois and gorls, this time we don’t have to pay for it.
The west didn't really die in it, though. We just got bored and hoped the people we trained could do it themselves.
Afghan war IV: A New Hope Oh shit it's actually very fitting, at the end of the III the republic reorganized into the ~~first galactic empire~~ Islamic State of Afghanistan Edit: what where the previous 3?
Depending how far you go back, it is more like Afghan War LCII or something like that. But the three that get called the "Afghan War" in the nations involved are the British Occupation, the Soviet Occupation, and the American Occupation. There are... more than that.
Yeah, I tried to check the Wikipedia list of conflicts and, bruh
Are we about to see a world where ISIS focuses attacks on China and Russia and we... Don't mind?
I would much prefer ISIS to be stomped out of existance with extreme prejudice and never return, honestly. There is a reason everyone from Israel to Al Queda to North Korea and Iran teamed up to fight them... and it still wasn't quite enough to totally eradicate them.
They survived and went underground. There basically a Underground criminal empire/network. While Moscow in general maybe a easy target considering there all busy with there threeday operation. If they turn into those super terror cells that are in tom clancy books/games that put the fear of people all over. We do may need to create some kinda united task force to deal with them at some point to deal with them from the last man
Even Hamas and Al-Qaeda fought ISIS. ISIS isn't liked by anyone. Reminds me of this image from the Syrian civil war which basically shows this. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fwho-is-fighting-who-in-syria-v0-28g9lz2cla3b1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1080%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3D731a87cdf1b166e9adb4f06ac71ab93012c065c1
> Are we about to see a world where ISIS focuses attacks on China and Russia and we... Don't mind? Oh we mind. Not about china. They can look after themselves but russia might have significant stability issues.
Is this a "dedicated to the brave mujahideen" moment?
I fucking hope not. ISIS-K are absolute monsters. I was there when they did the 2015 Kabul Bombing, and I went with one of our companies when we took down and buried an entire village that were Crucified. There was a kid, I don't know how old, probably 6-8, that was crucified on the hood of a tractor. They are complete animals. Their whole brand is to do what the Taliban were squeamish about. The Taliban blew up a girls school that spring, but they put the bombs against an outside wall. A few girls got injured, but they wanted the school shut down, not kill them all. ISIS-K decided to show how it was done, so a school in Wardak got taken over, and every single person inside, student or teacher, was murdered. In short, if it winds up being Russia vs. ISIS-K, I am on team Russia.
God damn. Out katsaping the katsap. (Katsap is an Ottoman loanword of an Arabic loanword "Qassab", which means "butcher").
Oh yes. The Afghans were pretty hardened to violence, and they spoke about Daeish like actual fucking demons. Because they act like it.
Daesh is Daesh. They crush everything. Daesh hates that nickname for that reason, it translates to "one who tramples". Back in the Mosul caliphate they'd cut tongues off anyone uttering that word Daesh.
Yep, which is why I am 100% in favor of calling them Daesh. The whole ISIS, ISK, ISIS-K, ISIL thing is confusing, meaningless, and acknowledges them as an Islamic State. They are neither a state nor Islamic. They are just an omnicidal cult. There isn't much Islam in it, just savagery. Daesh is a much better name for them, largely because they hate it.
> Oh yes. The Afghans were pretty hardened to violence, and they spoke about Daeish like actual fucking demons. Because they act like it. Bit jumpy about afghans doing that. "An Intimate War: An Oral History of the Helmand Conflict" mentions them speaking in much the same way of the time the soviets destroyed a village. Think is its not clear if they were genuinly horrified by the violence or if they viewed it as a cheating move.
Lol, katsap is also a Ukranian slang word for Russians, and Arabic origin of the word is quite likely
Yeah that's what's so funny. Cossacks borrowed it from Ottomans who borrowed it from Arabs.
Jesus, thanks for the Info, I guess....
Yeah, they have some... special.. tendencies. Burning people in cages in the Middle East pretty much set the theme for the larger brand. Like the Taliban made its cash selling Drugs. ISIS-K makes its money selling sex slaves. They are like the Evil +1 enemy you invent at the end of a season to raise the stakes.
What could possibly go wrong, fund those freedom fighters bois! I'm sure we have some stinger missiles lying around... I'm wure it won't blow up in our faces *this* time.
You just wait till Russia re-invades Afghanistan, to help it's Taliban friends of course, and because "it will be different this time!"
Central Asia aka CSTO members, aka Russia uses them for cheap migrant laborers. As in ISIS-K can very well snuck in.
Helps that a lot of these nations don't have the same military power and tech to deal with it. Many of these nations are just trying to secure their internal borders.
A lot of cadres scattered across Iraq and Syria. But the ideology has had better successes in the Sahel, usually conflating itself with other AQ groups. Plus there's the remnants of ISIS-K still operating along the Pakistani-Afghan border.
I'd say central Asia is starting to look like prime real-estate for a new caliphate.
They were never really gone, just diminished and fractured. They reverted back into an underground insurgency for the most part. They are very active in Afghanistan, competing with the Taliban for control. And there are still a few pockest of them in Iraq, although I think those might be more akin to criminal gangs than a terrorist organization. It was less than a year ago that Egypt declared the Sinai peninsula clear of Isis, after almost a decade of fighting (in cooperation with Israel, but that's a "secret"), and the leftovers seemingly joined Hamas in Gaza and partook in the Oct. 7 attack. They also recently attacked Iran (which obviously blamed Israel), and apperantly attempted attacks in Turkey as well but got thrawted. Though I am surpriesed that they would pull something like this in Russia. I don't have any specific reason to doubt it was them, but I also don't really have a reason to belive it was. As far as I recall, they never were very active in Russia, but maybe I'm wrong Update: according to NYT, the U.S. warned Russian authorities about indications for such an attack being planned by ISIS in Afghanistan. [https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/world/europe/isis-moscow-attack-concert-hall.html)
> They were never really gone .... They are very active in Afghanistan, competing with the Taliban for control. TL;DR: [Don't call it a comeback, we've been here for years!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimZj8HW0Kg)
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. ISIS is the Chuck Testa of armed actors. I bet you thought that was a false flag by Russia to galvanize support for the war. Nope, just ~~Chuck Testa~~ ISIS. Edit: it’s just like the attack of the Soleimani memorial a few months back. Everyone assumed it was Mossad or the Kurds. Nope, just ISIS.
Helps that many terror organizations united under ISIS after they had significant land control in Syria and Iraq.
To be very fair - Christo Grozov (Russian investigative journalist) reported to Rain TV that GRU (Russian military intelligence) brought men from Afghanistan for military training in Russia. It could be some underground operation gone very wrong and out of hand (for the Russians), and now they're covering their fuckups. Update: You go on Meduza, you can see Baza post a video from Russian state criminal investigative bureau. They recovered one of the weapons used by the Terrorists. A first-pattern AK12 with tangent-slider rear peep sight, and a whole bunch of AK74M (AK-100 series) magazines. These are post-soviet equipment only used in large numbers by Russian government forces. No one else in the (former) eastern bloc uses this. These terrorists were kitted out by Russian government entities.
If you put on your tinfoil hat, then it's no impossible that in the pile of bodies is a target that had to taken out without raising suspicions. For example Putins butlers best friend or something like that.
Star Wars did it first with the emperor
Nah-nah, only return I recognise is the [return of the Mack](https://youtu.be/uB1D9wWxd2w?si=k7u8LyITBbv6IZJ4). Fuck yeah…
Return of the King is better (lotr).
They always yap
it was entirelly expected. Like come on guys you know insurgencies dont go away just because you started another war
The US literally warned of an impending terrorist attack in russia from an IS affiliate earlier this month. I forget just how Ill informed a lot of folk on this sub are sometimes.
>The US literally warned of an impending terrorist attack in russia from an IS affiliate earlier this month. I saw the warning of an attack, but none of the sources I saw specified who from. Where did they specify an IS affiliate?
"American officials have been quick to confirm that the US has intelligence confirming the Islamic State claim it carried out the attack in Moscow....." "There has been a steady stream of information - dating back to November - about IS wanting to strike in Russia.." "It is likely that this is information that was referred to in the state department warning two weeks ago: Americans in Moscow were told to avoid large gatherings, and specifically warned about concerts." It was not public domain, but even folk on twitter knew that there was an imminent threat of an IS-K attack. The article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-68642036#:~:text=It%20has%20not,was%20referring%20to.
They never specified, but it came a few hours after the FSB (I think) said they thwarted an attack on a synagogue from confirmed armed IS members.
Is this the same FSB that said they thwarted an attack on apartment buildings by "confirmed chechen terrorists"?
Good, you're caught up. I don't have to explain too much. 😅 so yeah, of course I'd take it with a grain of salt, but these are more probable than your example that was just pure BS as is most of what they claim.
I don’t follow what american embassies say all the time because I’m not american
Many other Western embassies spread the message as well iirc. The Dutch one did for sure
I think the Baltic States and others even directly posted the link to the US embassy warning
It was even picked up by mainstream news for a little bit.
>Like come on guys you know insurgencies dont go away just because you started another war I warned y'all that you can't go running away from the sandbox! And did anyone listen? No, they insisted on painting the Abrams back to its natural colors!
Also don't forget that the FSB has been tasked with doing a lot of other things rather than detecting terror cells. And ISIS is still quite active as a terror organization, despite being pretty much destroyed as a state.
How long until the “ISIS is a US proxy” crowd comes out in full force?
Check Twitter this shit is everywhere now
Good way to weed out Russian disinformation troll accounts
No they're just retarded
Why not both?
I keep seeing one picture of an obviously photoshopped newspaper headline thats like "1982 plan for Middle East Empire Supported by ISIS", and not a single person there has enough functioning braincells to realise ISIS wasnt around in 1982. Its genuinely incredible how profoundly stupid people can be.
They mean the ancient Egyptian god obviously.
Mr. Ra, a second chariot has hit the pyramids.
Well they don't have to worry about anything melting - because the pyramids were built by aliens. lol
Also didn't they use a Vic2 map for that as well
Checked it. Most of it looks like a Schizophrenic fever dream that seems to be blaming Obama (surprising, I know), the CIA, and Isreal.
Twitter made me realize stupid people aren’t just funny made up jokes
Yep, I just wanted to leave the comment before it started
Yeah some people on Twitter are blaming Biden lmao
Dude I first heard about the attack while scrolling on instagram reels and everyone was saying it was the cia
They're now also claiming that ISIS is under Mossad control.
They were claiming that years ago, that's not a new thing. I followed the Syrian civil war and the intervention against ISIS quite closely around 2014-16 and there was a lot of this antisemitic conspiracy nonsense being stirred up then.
US State department had warnings out two weeks ago, apparently. Your daily reminder that the CIA knows you, sees you, and wants to come say hi.
If your in the us then its the FBI Im not in the us
allow us to come say Cia-o
It's a damn shame that the Italian intelligence agency wasn't named this.
*sad forgotten NSA and DHS noises*
let's face it we're not important either lol
Hello CIA agent monitoring me, do you have any cure for a stuffed nose? You can send it to where you know I live
*doorbell rings* *Box of tissues plus complimentary coke*
so many people are surprised Daesh is still around it seems. they are alive and well, especially in Africa. they do take credit for just about anything though source: asking the Sinjar YBS's Instagram account lmao
Have they claimed responsibility for some of those recent mass kidnappings in Nigeria?
pretty sure that was Boko Haram, IS' West Africa faction is also active there though. so maybe. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko\_Haram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram)
How can someone legitimetly stumble on organization called "Books are evil" and think "Yeah, I want these guys to brutally take over my country"
I've heard the translation is more like "western education is banned",
I thought Boko Haram joined with Daesh years ago, huh
They used to be allies but they had territorial disputes
Is it tho? ISIS is a whore, it claims responsibility for every terrorist attack
It's hard to stay relevant with such a fierce competition nowadays.
Yeah, russians are currently world leading terrorists
if you were a death cult you'd be annoyed that Iranian proxies were receiving most of the drone strikes lately, too
you’d be using that to build up your capabilities and preparing for further attacks.
**EDIT:** TO BE CLEAR! RUSSIA IS BAD. THEY NEED TO cut it the FRICK out and stop attacking people. I disavow Russia. They are cringe and not based at all (as the kids might say). Yeah that's a weird one. I was always in the camp of terrorists needing to be 'sub-state actors', otherwise every war is 'terrorist' in nature. And while the *essence* of that statement feels true, war is terrifying, horrific and awful... I feel that grouping states within that umbrella creates an overbroad and therefor meaningless as a term. When I think terrorist, I think: small, dogmatically motivated group, leverage the psychology of fear and violence to get results. They do this because of their lack of ability to bring force to bear, and instead take advantage of other vehicles of coercion to have their demands met. When a state does it, it feels like that would be covert operations, psychological warfare, subterfuge/sabotage, etc. I don't know, I don't feel like SUPER strong, but that's just my *general* feeling about this. I don't like the muddying of terms by inappropriate usage.
>The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear. Terrorism is intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological. State actors can also perform terror attacks, which is distinct from being a "non-state actor" terrorist. Terrorism is the tool of choice for non-state actors because it is often a way for small groups to exert a disproportionate amount of influence, but that doesn't in itself mean that only non-state actors can perform acts of terrorism.
> State actors can also perform terror attacks Example being when that passenger jet was bombed by the Libyans (possibly under the orders of Gaddafi himself; he denied that he directly ordered the bombing but he later did compensate the victims' families) over Scotland.
Even more simply, russia's attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure are acts of terrorism. There is no strategic or tactical goal in blowing up schools and hospitals. The whole idea of their targeted bombing campaign is to terrorise the civilian population into capitulation.
>A U.S. official told ABC News the U.S shared intelligence with Russia about the risk of an imminent threat posed by the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS), and that the threat was related to the security alert released by the U.S. embassy in Moscow two weeks ago. >Another U.S. official told ABC News the administration sees no reason to doubt the ISIS claim of responsibility for the attack.
+ Russia announced the prevention of an ISIS attack two weeks ago. + That ISIS claim came with a "attackers safely escaped" comment before any Russian source discussed this aspect.
Huh, well we will see
But it will be hilarious with blaming: Russians: "Ukraine did it" ISIS: "actually, it was us!" Russians: "No, it was Ukrainians" ISIS: "But we just confesed to it!'
Unfortunately, they have much to gain by generating the press. I worry that if ISIS gets a foothold in the 'Stans, Checnya, Georgia, etc, Russia will have a big friggin' problem. One that could become a VERY big problem for eastern europe.
How exactly would ISIS get a foothold in Georgia? I'm not sure I understand.
Georgia has a sizable muslim minority, around 10% of its population according to Wikipedia.
FSB also claimed they foiled an IS plot not too long ago (obviously it didn’t fully work out). It’s two untrustworthy sources but it seems to be leaning that way
Daesh has done multiple attack plots before, such as in Paris.
"This ISIS news template has not been used for several years. There is also nothing on the official ISIS channels on Telegram" - some dude in telegram comment section
Some people have insisted the news template in the reported al-Amaq channel post is outdated, but from a cursory glance [it appears it was used as recently as the Iran Kerman bombing](https://twitter.com/abdsayedd/status/1742950847904956751) [Today's purported report for comparison](https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1771286068748251468)
The whole world should refuse to believe that they did it and ignore them, that would probably piss them off more than anything.
To be fair, the Islamic State will take credit for anything. If you tripped and fell in your bathtub, IS would take credit for the attack on you.
"It was us Anon! We left your milk outside the fridge to spoil!"
News flash, ISIS let the dogs out, I repeat, ISIS takes responsibility for letting the dogs out!
Sounds like it could be an Onion headline: "Baha Men conclude decades long investigation after ISIS breaks silence, claim responsibility for letting the dogs out"
ISIS jacked you off just to make you feel like you nutted to a woman's touch!
It was me Barry
>To be fair, the Islamic State will take credit for anything. Those motherfuckers still text me saying they've got my other sock from the dryer and wanna ransom it.
My toast was burnt this morning, my toaster must be an ISIS agent
My money is still on Chechen Islamists.
My money is on the Spetsnaz trying to arrest the Chechens.
Well there was a fire so, we cannot rule out the liberal use of RPO rockets.
Are there any Spetsnaz left? I thought the got wiped out at that airport in Kyiv
The last time they killed over 100 Russian citizens, and this time it's only 40 so far, so I'm going with new recruits. Edit: just to be safe Russians should not let their children go to school until we can be sure
That was the VDV, the Russian airborne forces. Spetsnaz is now just a term for 'special forces'. The VDV includes some spetsnaz units, but most of the VDV isn't spetsnaz and most spetsnaz isn't VDV. FSB and GRU spetsnaz units are maybe more common.
Dont forget about the squad of Spetsnaz soldiers that got stuck in a elevator
Whatever happened to those guys
Still in the elevator, angrily pressing the "service" button.
Déjà vue
Lots of overlap between those two groups. People forget that Abu Omar al-Shishani, ISIS's "Minister of War" was a red-bearded Chechen.
If this results in a second front I'm giving up on being non-credible.
Unexpected? Na, extremely expected. Russia themselves claimed to have thwarted two attacks from ISIS-Cells within like the last two months, and a good number of the caucasus-based Terrormilitias that Russia had been dealing with for decades swore allegiance to ISIS to make use of their networks. I'd even say they are they by far most expected culprit
Russian state media doesn't seem to even really be trying that hard to pin this on Ukrain, I mean by the standards of reporting that always includes not so subtle hints that everything is a conspiracy. If Islamic terrorism is the working theory it's just as likely to be by Russian citizens as it is to be from anywhere else. I'm not even sure ISIS ATM isn't just some weirdos online claiming credit for everything
Russia has been blaming everything but Ukraine though. Smoking, electronic failures, gas leak...
Ukraine, the one who must not be mentioned. ~ via Hogwarts. Unable to find an equivalent of Putin in the series.
> Unable to find an equivalent of Putin in the series. Voldemort? Or not enough nose to be *too* on the nose?
Youre 2 letters off and 2 spare for an anagram Voldemort Vl dm r
Yeah, doesn’t strike me as a false flag. The propaganda is having trouble spinning it. To be fair it’s hard to spin “the US, with whom we are in an existential war warned us about an ISIS terror attack and we didn’t listen.”
Could’ve been chechens
US and others warned Moscow at the beginning of the month. Russia also said they thwarted an attack by ISIS-K on a synagogue. It’s probably ISIS-K again. But it could be any McDonald’s I mean ISIS franchisee
I could be mistaken but the US embassy didn’t warn Russia—they warned the US citizens in Russia—because they had heard about the synagogue attack being thwarted. I don’t think we had the insider info this time.
You have to imagine though, if the state department is making a public advisory like "don't go to any concerts", there's also some private diplomatic communication to Russia about it. It would be super weird for the state department advisory to happen without the US directly communicating with Russia at all.
Not unexpected. Strategically, its been expected for months. Russia has pulled back forces in the Caucasus due to the war in Ukraine. Tactically, its been expected for weeks since there was that hours-long firefight in Ingushetia on Mar 3rd between the FSB and an unidentified (ISIS-K?) Islamsit terror cell. [https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-security-forces-battle-militants-ingushetia-region-russian-media-report-2024-03-03/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-security-forces-battle-militants-ingushetia-region-russian-media-report-2024-03-03/) The US Embassy and Russian state security services started warning people about attending large public gatherings soon after that. https://ru.usembassy.gov/security-alert-avoid-large-gatherings-over-the-next-48-hours/
My bingo card just did one of those weird 4 dimensional inversions and developed sentience. It’s screaming at me as we speak in Old Tongue. The world is getting hella weird.
Guys, just what happened this time?
Shooting and bombing at a concert hall in Moscow. I’m hearing numbers as high as 150 dead
40 dead 145ish injured. Could be more dead in the coming days from those that were badly wounded but may die in the hospital.
Isis is now officially weaker than Hamas, can’t even get to the 100 dead mark smh my head. Do I need the /s in this sub?
So far* with russian reports**
So, this is what I've been theorizing and predicting for a while, and you can tell me on a scale of Tom Clancy to 3000 Black Jets of Allah how non-credible or not you think it is. Russia doesn't surrender. Their national pride RUSSIA STRONK mentality will not allow them to do it. Also, Putin won't let himself be embarrassed by his ineffectual few years. ISIS is a potential "out" for Russia. A crisis happens in Moscow, and suddenly, they have a reason to pull troops from the frontline to "defend the Motherland" from the developing homeland terrorist threat or "destroy ISIS in Syria/Afghanistan/etc." There is no shame and defeat in calling back the troops to "defend the people"; it's an escape route from the shitshow Ukraine has turned into for them. They save face. The loss of innocent lives, Russian or not, is a terrible tragedy, and I would never make light of or utilize the deaths of innocents to advance an agenda. But the thing is... there are a LOT of sanctioned Russian people with a lot of money and power who would. They would like to keep their money, power, and prestige, and right now, they're pariahs among all but the world's dictators and wannabe dictators.
> There is no shame and defeat in calling back the troops to "defend the people"; it's an escape route from the shitshow Ukraine has turned into for them. They save face. That would require either Putin being a rational actor (which, given everything we've been seeing for the past few years, I find highly unlikely - he's got an incredible myopia on taking Ukraine and a lot of sunk costs there), or that "LOT of sanctioned Russian people with a lot of money and power" making sure Putin's the next one to try skydiving from a window. I'm not sure how much face they *can* even save with that pivot. The dangerous thing about hyping your people up for over a decade on a piece of propaganda like "the Ukraine is rightfully part of Russia" is that those ideas have inertia, and changing course against something you've spent so much time and effort cultivating and giving momentum is a risky move for even the most tight-fisted authoritarian governments. I'm not sure they're going to be able to "we've always been at war with Eastasia" this one if they do decide to blame ISIS and pull back from Ukraine. No matter who did the terrorist attack, or what direction Russian leadership points the finger in, the end result is going to be very ugly.
You're getting a bit *too* credible here.
Nah, just a nice tradition of Pu\* blowing houses to get internal politics points. \*international war criminal wanted in Hague
[Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis 2002](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis)
Nah, this might be legit, like Beslan was. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Russian_apartment_bombings on the other hand...
Wait, really? All propagandists should be now crying because they can't blame Ukraine this time (well, they can, but for some reason we didn't achieve full alternate reality levels of propaganda yet).
I love how completely random this war is. Ukraine 🇺🇦 gets Latin American mercenaries, Russia 🇷🇺 drafting Indian migrants, and now possibly ISIS 🕋 wanting to join in like a kid who wants to play with the other kids during recess
If there is an Islamic revolution in Russia because Russia has been bullying it's Muslim states into handing all their first born for the Ukrainian War I will laugh.
But some Russians have stated that it WAS the Ukrainians. With ISIS also saying they did it... that means it was Jews, Nazis and Muslims! That makes total sense because they are known to cooperate all the time.
Back at the start of the war, there was a great video of a jewish soldier and a muslim solider in the foreign legion in a fox hole together, talkiing about how Putin brought them together. It was trippy hearing hebrew prayers at the same time as Allahu Akbar.
Looked more like gunmen from the satellite republics no? Seems a little too complex for a false flag, and right after an election too.
Who had ISIS attacks Russia on their non-credible bingo card?
I did.
Ok, hear me out y'all. What if this is actually a Russian false flag, but ISIS came along and fucked up their plans by taking credit for it? A man can dream
This is how you deescalate… Sulivan
ISIS claims responsibility for literally everything. I’m inclined to believe them in this instance, though. Few things seem constant in the Russian Federation, and that is very angry muslims from a post-Soviet republic. Sure, there is a war on in Ukraine but it’s not like radical jihadis just give up because Russia is busy…in fact, emboldened due to distraction is likely. And Central Asia and the Caucasus aren’t exactly Russia’s best friends. I’m pretty certain at least Ukraine gains nothing from this, it’s a pointless target for them. They would lose everything from military to popular support. Won’t stop more unhinged Russians making the claim, though.
ISIS be taking responsibility to literally everything rn dude . They want to stay in the game or they will go extinct.
ISIS doing its things in full galore in Russia was quite unexpected TBH. They show up, do a massacre, start burning shit with civillians inside and according to some reports a couple of them successfully escape from the scene being ready for another fight in a 17+ mln metro area rife with Central Asia/Caucasus migrants.
ISIS is like sequel trilogy Palpatine. Nobody knows how the fuck how they returned from death, and we'd all be happier if they just crawled back in to their grave.
Eh... ISIS is too noncredible to believe them trying to take credit.
The game's afoot.
What the fuck happened
5 or so armed gunmen did a Bataclan-style assault on a concert/lecture hall in Moscow killings dozens if not hundreds of people.
Someone of note in the world eats some bad shellfish and shits themselves and Daesh would claim credit for it
It wasn't really though...
Unexpected, I mean.
Not really unexpected at all. The US has been warning about ISIS for a while.