Updated25. March 2024, 7:57 p.m
ISPK: “Supremacy in IS”: These are the plans of the Moscow attackers
The IS offshoot ISPK is suspected to be the mastermind behind the attack in Moscow. According to an expert, the terrorist militia wants to become the most powerful group in IS with such attacks.
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The IS offshoot ISPK is suspected to be behind the attack in Moscow.
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According to terror expert Peter Neumann, the group wants to achieve dominance within IS.
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In December 2023, they wanted to draw attention to themselves with spectacular attacks on civilians in Cologne and Vienna.
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Neumann doubts that the attackers paid for the attack.
At least 137 people were killed in Friday’s terrorist attack on a concert hall near Moscow. The terrorist militia IS (Islamic State) claimed responsibility for the attack. Four Tajiks were arrested. According to expert Wesley Van Drongelen, it is questionable whether they are actually the perpetrators: “They could also be people who have little or nothing to do with the whole thing.”
There are speculations that the offshoot terrorist group ISPK, also known as “IS Khorasan”, may have carried out the attack. This group was still relatively unknown in Western Europe. Terror expert Peter Neumann has been dealing with it for a long time and answers the most important questions:
Mr. Neumann, why have most people never heard of this terrorist group?
This is because the terrorist group has so far carried out attacks primarily in Afghanistan, where the group was founded in 2014. After further attacks in Muslim countries such as Iran and Turkey, Russia is now the first non-Muslim country. The ISPK has thus slipped into the public eye.
Russia has been in conflict with IS, which originated in Afghanistan in the 1980s, for many decades. In the 90s and 00s, the Chechen war followed in the Caucasus. In the Syria war in the 2010s, Putin supported the ruler Assad in the fight against the IS rebels. The ISPK is one of many branches of IS and recruits fighters in the historic Khorasan region, which includes Afghanistan and Iran as well as many former Soviet republics such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Many IS fighters from these countries still have a hatred of Russia because of its Soviet past. But your campaign is not just aimed at Russia.
The terrorist group has all of Europe in its sights. Fortunately, in December 2023, their planned attacks on Cologne Cathedral and St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna were thwarted in time. Through spectacular attacks on civilians from non-Muslim countries, the ISPK is now trying to make itself so famous that it is perceived as the leading group in IS. With the terrorist act in the Moscow concert hall that left hundreds dead, they have now tragically come closer to establishing themselves as the strongest group.
The first arrest took place hours after the attack in Moscow.
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How did the group gain the means and money to carry out such an attack?
This is mainly due to the Afghan leader Shahab al-Muhajir, who calls himself the emir of Khorasan province. The 29-year-old has the necessary contacts abroad to carry out such an attack. In addition, it is easy for the ISBK to recruit fighters in the former Soviet republics. Tajiks in particular are vulnerable due to low-paying jobs and are easily influenced to convince them of their own ideologies. The money likely comes from tax collections from ISPK-controlled villages in Afghanistan. In many cases, such groups also derive their income from crime such as illicit trafficking.
The 29-year-old leader of the ISPK, Shahab al-Muhajir and self-proclaimed “Emir of Khorosan”. The Afghan has been leading the terrorist militia since 2020.
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In IS attacks, the perpetrators usually commit a suicide attack. Why did they allow themselves to be arrested in Moscow?
So-called commando operations like those in Moscow are actually unusual for IS and its affiliates. In such operations you fight until you are shot by the security forces or you try to escape in time. This was the case, for example, with the IS attack on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin in 2016. The assassin carried out the attack, fled and was only caught and shot three days later.
The perpetrators apparently let themselves be paid. That also seems rather unusual for IS fighters?
I’m rather skeptical as to whether that’s really true, it’s just a statement from the perpetrators. That’s what assassins like to say when they’re caught and tortured. In doing so, they want to signal that they are not religious fanatics and are hoping for a mitigating sentence.
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