Putin stunned as ISIS kills 60 in Russia

ISIS says it carried out an attack at a large concert hall in the Moscow, Russia, that left more than 60 people dead and nearly 150 injured on Friday night.

Gunmen on combat gears stormed the famous Crocus City Hall, where a concert was holding, stationed themselves in strategic positions inside the hall, and opened fire.

They also threw explosives which set the building on fire.

Some people were evacuated, but some remained trapped inside the burning building, with death toll expected to rise.

The Islamic State, on its affiliated social media channels, said it was responsible, and the United States has corroborated ISIS’ claim.

Russia has announced that it has opened investigation into the massacre.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin described it as a “huge tragedy,” while former Russian President and current Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Telegram that if “Moscow finds the perpetrators of the attack were connected with the ‘Kiev regime’ then all [Ukrainians] should be found and destroyed including state officials.”

The attack comes on the heels of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s landslide reelection and amid the war in Ukraine, more than two years after Moscow invaded the country.

Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and the author of “Putin’s Playbook,” told Fox News Digital, “Putin has been briefed on the attack and he ‘gave all the necessary instructions’ to the law enforcement and security services, according to his press secretary Dmitriy Peskov. The Russians are treating it as a terrorist attack.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had denied any Ukrainian involvement before ISIS claimed responsibility.

“Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever,” he said on social media, adding, in part, “there is not the slightest doubt that the events in the Moscow suburbs will contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war. And also to justify manifest genocidal strikes against the civilian population of Ukraine.”

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