Moscow attack: Why has ISIS struck Russia? How country's role in fighting Islamic State made it a target for jihadists - and influx of Asian recruits made it easier to strike the capital

Terror group ISIS twice claimed responsibility for the deadly Moscow concert attack that left nearly 140 people dead on Friday night. 

The attack, which saw four heavily armed terrorists walk into the Crocus City Hall on the western outskirts of Moscow at around 8pm local time on Friday night and slaughter scores of festivalgoers, was the deadliest carried out by ISIS against Russia in years. 

The terror group said in a statement on Saturday that the concert attack was part of the 'raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting Islam.'

Russia has been in ISIS' crosshairs for several years, having not forgiven Putin for propping up Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad, who made a concerted effort to boot the terror group from the region, for more than a decade. 

The terror group's propagandists have for years claimed that Moscow is part of a broad Christian coalition that is engaged in a millennia-long battle against Islam. 

The attack saw four heavily armed terrorists walk into the Crocus City Hall on the western outskirts of Moscow at around 8pm local time on Friday night

Muhammadsobir Fayzov (pictured, left) is a suspect in the Crocus City Hall shooting on Friday

Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda (pictured) is a suspect in the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue

Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev (pictured) sits inside behind a glass wall of an enclosure for defendants at the Basmanny district court in Moscow

Shamsidin Fariduni (pictured) was arrested for his role in the attack 

During the 1970s and 1980s, mujahedeen fighters in Afghanistan, who would later form Al-Quaeda, which itself would lead to the creation of ISIS, fought a bloody war against Soviet forces that had control over the nation. 

Russia has also been developing its relationship with the Taliban, currently in control of Afghanistan. The Taliban has long been in open conflict with ISIS in Afghanistan, with each side receiving support from smaller regional powers. 

As a result, the ultra-violent sect of ISIS that is believed to have carried out the attack, Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, in particular has focused on recruiting central Asian militants, most of whom speak Russian, to carry out attacks. 

ISIS-K, known for its extreme brutality, has for the past 18 months been on a major recruitment drive that has targeted experienced members of existing terror cells, according to a report submitted to the UN security council in January. 

Many recruits are also Russian nationals, meaning they can easily go to cities across Russia, creating new opportunities for attacks the nation. 
  ISIS-K has targeted Russia in the past, having claimed responsibility for the deadly 2022 suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, that killed two embassy staff and four others. 

Earlier this month, Russia’s FSB said it foiled an ISIS-K attack on a Moscow synagogue, the country’s Tass news agency reported. 

The attack was the deadliest carried out by ISIS against Russia in years

While the attack on Friday night was a dramatic escalation, experts said ISIS has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years

An interior view of the Crocus City Hall concert venue after the shooting attack and fire

While the attack on Friday night was a dramatic escalation, experts said the group has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.

'ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticizing Putin in its propaganda,' Colin Clarke of Soufan Center, a New York-based research group, told Reuters. 

Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K 'sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims.'

He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.

ISIS-K also has a history of carrying out attacks across the world as well. 

Earlier this year, US intelligence intercepted communications that confirmed the group carried out the twin bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people during a memorial for dead military commander Qassem Soleimani. 

And last year, a top US commander told Congress that ISIS-K was quickly building its capacity to conduct 'external operations' in Europe and Asia. 

A person looks on the Crocus City Hall concert venue following a terrorist attack

The attack on Friday night left nearly 140 people dead 

A security staff stands outside the Crocus City Hall concert venue

Michael Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, said at the time that he believed Western interests may be victim to an ISIS-K attack 'in as little as six months and with little to no warning', though was quick to say that an attack within the US itself was unlikely. 

The UN report submitted in January cited several foiled ISIS-K plots to conduct terror attacks in Europe, including one where seven Tajik, Turkmen and Kyrgyz individuals linked to the terror cell were arrested in Germany while planning to conduct 'high-impact terrorist attacks for which they were obtaining weapons and possible targets.

ISIS-K's name refers to an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.

The group has been led by Shahab al-Muhajir, an engineer by training and education, since 2020.

His name means 'Shahab the Migrant', referring to the fact that he is the first non-Afghan and non-Pakistani person to run ISIS-K. 

A man suspected of taking part in the attack of a concert hall that killed 137 people, the deadliest attack in Europe to have been claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, is escorted by Russian law enforcement officers

The attack is believed to have been carried out by members of ISIS-K 

He reportedly spend time as a subcontractor of a security firm in Afghanistan, and was known to have spent some time on the US' Bagram Airfield, formerly the largest US military base in Afghanistan. 

al-Muhajir is one of three ISIS-K members on the list of people sanctioned under an anti-terror directive first set out by George Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001, and renewed every year since by successive presidents. 

The others are Sultan Aziz Azam, a spokesperson for the group, and Maulawi Rajab, a senior leader who 'plans ISIS-K’s attacks and operations and commands ISIS-K groups conducting attacks in Kabul', according the US State Department, which only sanctioned the terrorists in November 2021. 

Meanwhile, the UK only sanctioned the three men in 2023. OFSI, the UK's sanctions body, said cited al-Muhajir responsibility 'for multiple terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of deaths in 2021' as the reason for his punishment.