BAGHDAD: The Daesh group said Friday four of its members had been arrested after they attacked a concert hall near Moscow killing 143 people, a day after Russia blamed Ukraine.
On March 22, gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, setting the venue alight and wounding 80 people.
Moscow has detained 12 people and charged eight with “terror-related offenses” over their alleged roles in the attack. They include four suspects from Tajikistan who are accused of carrying it out, Russian state media said.
Daesh swiftly claimed the attack, although Moscow has said repeatedly that the attackers had links to “Ukrainian nationalists” — a claim Kyiv rejects.
In the latest issue of its weekly Al-Nabaa magazine published Friday on Telegram channels, the group said its fighters had been hunted down by ground and air forces.
The operation ended when the men were surrounded in “a forest,” Daesh said, adding that they were now in “captivity.”
-- a date likely to be extended until their trial.
Russia has been a repeated target of attack by Daesh, in retaliation for its suppression of unrest in Muslim-majority regions and its support for President Bashar Assad’s government in the civil war in Syria.
Daesh says four members arrested over Moscow attack
https://arab.news/cr3dk
Daesh says four members arrested over Moscow attack
- Moscow has detained 12 people and charged eight with “terror-related offenses” over their alleged roles in the attack
- A Moscow court has remanded the four main suspects in custody until May 22
Blair dropped from Gaza ‘peace board’ after Arab objections
- Former UK PM was viewed with hostility over role in Iraq War
- He reportedly met Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has been withdrawn from the US-led Gaza “peace council” following objections by Arab and Muslim countries, The Guardian reported.
US President Donald Trump has said he would chair the council. Blair was long floated for a prominent role in the administration, but has now been quietly dropped, according to the Financial Times.
Blair had been lobbying for a position in the postwar council and oversaw a plan for Gaza from his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change that involved Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
Supporters of the former British leader cited his role in the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of conflict and violence in Northern Ireland.
His detractors, however, highlighted his former position as representative of the Middle East Quartet, made up of the UN, EU, Russia and US, which aimed to bring about peace in the Middle East.
Furthermore, Blair’s involvement in the Iraq War is viewed with hostility across the Arab world.
After Trump revealed his 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war in September, Blair was the only figure publicly named as taking a potential role in the postwar peace council.
The US president supported his appointment and labeled him a “very good man.”
A source told the Financial Times that Blair’s involvement was backed by the US and Israel.
“The Americans like him and the Israelis like him,” the person said.
The US plan for Gaza was criticized in some quarters for proposing a separate Gaza framework that did not include the West Bank, stoking fears that the occupied Palestinian territories would become separate polities indefinitely.
Trump said in October: “I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair is reported to have held an unpublicized meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late last month to discuss plans.
His office declined to comment to The Guardian, but an ally said the former prime minister would not be sitting on Gaza’s “board of peace.”
