On Friday, multiple gunman attacked the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, Russia. According to reports, at least 130 people were killed in the attack. ISIS-K has since claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Saturday on CNN’s “AC360,” CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen—who was originally skeptical that ISIS carried out the attack—suggested that if ISIS-K did indeed attack the Russian concert hall it would reflect poorly on Joe Biden.
ISIS-K, or Islamic State Khorasan, is the Afghanistan-based branch of the Islamic State terrorist organization.
Citing Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, Bergen said it would be “very embarrassing for the Biden administration if it turned out that ISIS-K has sort of re-grouped to the extent that they can reach out to other countries [and] carry out major attacks.”
“I was a little skeptical, because, typically, if you’re an ISIS fighter, you don’t care about getting killed at the scene of the crime,” Bergen said. “You don’t — you’re not looking for a getaway, you’re looking to martyr yourself. So, in this case, it looks like the people did get away, according to the Russians. And that isn’t sort of typical for an ISIS-type attack.”
U.S. intelligence has confirmed ISIS was involved in the attack.
“So, — however, the fact that it’s not just the Americans who had intelligence in their system about ISIS presence in Moscow, it turns out that the Russians did, too,” he continued. “Otherwise, why would Russian state television report on March 7 about a plan to attack a Moscow synagogue by ISIS? So, I don’t know. It isn’t absolutely typical of their M.O. But, certainly, ISIS has attacked concert venues in the past.”
Bergen continued:
In, Paris, you recall in 2015, they killed 130 people, most — many of them were attending a concert. And, obviously, this work could well be — it could be just what it — as this group says. I’m still looking for evidence, and, hopefully, we’ll identify who these people are relatively quickly. Are they Tajiks? Are they Chechens? If they’re part of ISIS. Did they train in Afghanistan? That’s a very big question here.
Obviously, that would be very embarrassing for the Biden administration if it turned out that ISIS-K has sort of re-grouped to the extent that they can reach out to other countries [and] carry out major attacks at a time when they’re responsible for the withdrawal from — of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
The United States warned Vladimir Putin of a pending terrorist attack earlier this month, but Moscow dismissed those warnings, believing them to be an attempt “to intimidate and destabilize our society.”
According to sources within the U.S. intelligence community, a cell of ISIS-K terrorists has been under surveillance since November, with indications pointing to plans for an attack in Moscow. The U.S. embassy in Moscow issued a warning on March 8 regarding an “imminent threat,” advising Americans to steer clear of crowded places such as concert halls.
Joe Biden has long claimed to have no regrets about the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, and has said he’d do nothing differently. No one in the administration has been held accountable for the deadly withdrawal. NBC News reported at the time that the botched withdrawal “recreates the same safe harbor Al Qaeda previously enjoyed” before we went into the country in 2001. Foreign intelligence officials also expressed concerns about the resurgence of global jihadists following the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan.