【中美创新时报2024年3月23日据美联社讯】(记者温友平编译) 官方媒体周六报道称,武装分子冲进莫斯科音乐厅发动可怕袭击,造成至少 115 人死亡,俄罗斯当局拘留了 11 人。
俄罗斯调查委员会表示,其中四名被拘留者直接参与了这起袭击事件,袭击事件导致这座庞大的购物中心和音乐厅冒着闷烧,屋顶倒塌。
尽管伊斯兰国组织在一份声明中声称对此负责,但俄罗斯机构似乎暗示这起袭击与乌克兰有关。一名美国情报官员告诉美联社,美国机构已确认该组织对此次袭击负责。
俄罗斯调查委员会表示,这四名嫌疑人在俄罗斯西部的布良斯克地区被捕,“距离乌克兰边境不远”。国家通讯社塔斯社援引俄罗斯联邦安全局的话称,他们计划越境进入乌克兰并在那里“有联系”。据塔斯社报道,俄罗斯联邦安全局局长周六向俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京通报了逮捕情况。
这次袭击发生在普京通过精心策划的选举压倒性胜利巩固权力几天后。这次袭击是俄罗斯多年来最严重的一次袭击,发生时正值该国在乌克兰的战斗已进入第三个年头。
袭击发生后不久,一些俄罗斯议员将矛头指向乌克兰。乌克兰总统泽连斯基的顾问米哈伊洛·波多利亚克否认与此事有任何关系。
“乌克兰从未诉诸恐怖手段,”他在 X(前身为 Twitter)上发帖称。 “这场战争的一切,只有战场上才能决定。”
俄罗斯官方媒体周六分享的图片显示,在莫斯科西部边缘的克拉斯诺戈尔斯克,一队紧急车辆仍然聚集在克洛库斯市政厅废墟外,该市政厅可容纳 6000 多人。
网上发布的视频显示,持枪者在会场近距离向平民开枪。星期五,人们聚集在那里观看俄罗斯摇滚乐队野餐的表演,剧院的屋顶在周六凌晨倒塌,因为消防员花了几个小时扑灭袭击期间爆发的大火。
图片:周五,俄罗斯莫斯科西部边缘的克洛库斯市政厅上空发生大火。SERGEI VEDYASHKIN/美联社
伊斯兰国在阿富汗的分支机构在其阿玛克通讯社发表的一份声明中表示,它袭击了克拉斯诺戈尔斯克的一大群“基督徒”。目前无法立即验证该说法的真实性。
一名美国情报官员告诉美联社,美国情报机构最近几周收集到的信息显示,“伊斯兰国”分支正计划在莫斯科发动袭击,美国官员本月早些时候已私下与俄罗斯官员分享了这些情报。
该官员听取了有关此事的简报,但无权公开讨论情报信息,并以匿名方式接受美联社采访。
此后,来自世界各地的消息纷纷涌来,表达了愤怒、震惊和对受影响者的支持。
周五,联合国安理会谴责了“令人发指且懦弱的恐怖袭击”,并强调必须追究肇事者的责任。联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯的发言人表示,他也“以最强烈的措辞”谴责了这起恐怖袭击。
与此同时,俄罗斯卫生部表示,在莫斯科,周六早上有数百人排队捐献血液和血浆。
在对异见进行全面镇压后,普京在本周的总统选举中将他对俄罗斯的控制又延长了六年。他公开谴责西方关于潜在恐怖袭击的警告,认为这是企图恐吓俄罗斯人。 “所有这些都类似于公开勒索,企图恐吓和破坏我们社会的稳定,”他本周早些时候表示。
2015年10月,伊斯兰国放置的炸弹在西奈半岛上空击落了一架俄罗斯客机,机上224人全部遇难,其中大多数是从埃及返回的俄罗斯度假者。该组织主要在叙利亚和伊拉克活动,但也在阿富汗和非洲开展活动,过去几年还对俄罗斯动荡的高加索地区和其他地区的多起袭击负责。 它从俄罗斯和前苏联其他地区招募了战士。
美联社驻华盛顿撰稿人迈克尔·巴尔萨莫为本报告做出了贡献。
题图:2024年3 月 23 日,警察在俄罗斯莫斯科西部边缘的克洛库斯市政厅附近的一个地区巡逻。VITALY SMOLNIKOV/美联社
附原英文报道:
Russia detains suspects in an attack that left at least 115 dead in a Moscow concert hall
By Associated PressUpdated March 23, 2024
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities detained 11 people, state media reported Saturday, after gunmen stormed a concert hall in Moscow in a grisly attack that left at least 115 people dead.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said four of those detained were directly involved in the attack that left the sprawling shopping mall and music venue smoldering with a collapsed roof.
Russian agencies appeared to suggest the attack was linked to Ukraine even though the Islamic State group claimed responsibility in a statement. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed that that group was responsible for the attack.
The four suspects were stopped in the Bryansk region of western Russia, “not far from the border with Ukraine,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said. They planned to cross the border into Ukraine and “had contacts” there, state news agency Tass said, citing Russia’s FSB. The head of the FSB briefed President Vladimir Putin on the arrests on Saturday, according to Tass.
The attack came just days after Putin cemented his grip on power in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide. The attack was the deadliest in Russia in years and came as the country’s fight in Ukraine dragged into a third year.
Shortly after the attack, some Russian lawmakers pointed the finger at Ukraine. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied any involvement.
“Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield.”
Images shared by Russian state media Saturday showed a fleet of emergency vehicles still gathered outside the ruins of Crocus City Hall, which had a capacity of more than 6,000 people in Krasnogorsk, on Moscow’s western edge.
Videos posted online showed gunmen in the venue shooting civilians at point-blank range. The roof of the theater, where crowds had gathered Friday for a performance by the Russian rock band Picnic, collapsed in the early hours of Saturday morning as firefighters spent hours fighting a fire that erupted during the attack.
A massive blaze is seen over the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, on Friday.SERGEI VEDYASHKIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a statement posted by its Aamaq news agency, the Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan said it had attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk. It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the claim.
A U.S. intelligence official told the AP that U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that the IS branch was planning an attack in Moscow, and that U.S. officials had privately shared the intelligence earlier this month with Russian officials.
The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence information and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
Messages of outrage, shock and support for those affected have since streamed in from around the world.
On Friday, the U.N. Security Council condemned “the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” and underlined the need for the perpetrators to be held accountable. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” his spokesman said.
Meanwhile, in Moscow itself, hundreds of people stood in line Saturday morning to donate blood and plasma, Russia’s health ministry said.
Putin, who extended his grip on Russia for another six years in this week’s presidential vote after a sweeping crackdown on dissent, had publicly denounced the Western warnings of a potential terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. “All that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society,” he said earlier this week.
In October 2015, a bomb planted by the Islamic State downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian vacation-goers returning from Egypt. The group, which operates mainly in Syria and Iraq but also in Afghanistan and Africa, also has claimed several attacks in Russia’s volatile Caucasus and other regions in the past years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
Associated Press writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.