INTERNACIONAL
ISIS using deadly Moscow attack to recruit new terrorists as US monitoring ‘very closely’
The recent deadly terrorist attack in Moscow has brought renewed attention to the ISIS-K terrorist organization in not only the U.S. and other European nations, but to extremists watching.
«It’s really good for recruiting for the Islamic State to conduct a show that it can launch attacks, to show that it has reach,» Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and founding editor of «The Long War Journal,» told Fox News Digital. «Any want-to-be Jihadist may be motivated by attacks such as these.»
«This is the type of attack that is effective. We’re talking about it,» he added.
Four men from Tajikistan were charged in a Russian court Sunday after a concert hall was attacked by gunmen who killed more than 130 people and injured 180 others.
A Russian Rosguardia (National Guard) servicemen secures an area as a massive blaze seen over the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 22, 2024. (AP Photo)
WHAT IS ISIS-K, THE TERRORIST GROUP TIED TO MOSCOW CONCERT HALL ATTACK AND 2021 ABBEY GATE BOMBING?
Reports have indicated that the Russian authorities are sending a message to other extremists after the men appeared in court showing signs of extreme physical abuse, and videos surfaced on Telegram of at least two of the men being tortured.
But Roggio argued the move is unlikely to be successful in actually deterring terrorist attacks.
«The videos will be used by ISIS for future recruiting as well as to harden current members against Russia,» the security expert said. «The Islamic State (IS) will use these videos as proof of the brutality of states like Russia against Muslims.»
In this photo taken from video released by Investigative Committee of Russia on Sunday, March 24, 2024, a suspect in the Crocus City Hall shooting on Friday is escorted to the Russian Investigative Committee headquarters in Moscow, Russia. (Investigative Committee of Russia via AP)
ISIS-K first caught international attention in the U.S. following the 2021 bombing at Abbey Gate during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
But the group largely stayed out of major headlines until earlier this year after it took credit for twin bombings that were carried out during a January memorial ceremony for Iranian General Qasem Soleimani that killed 95 people and injured more than 280 others.
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«Sometimes these groups operate in the shadows just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they left,» Roggio said. «It just means that they become more visible.
«It indicates that the Islamic State has a reach far greater than some people originally thought,» he added. «They’re not just confined to Afghanistan.»
A masked Islamic State soldier poses holding the ISIS flag in 2015. (History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Roggio pointed out that Islamic extremists have launched numerous attacks in Russia over the last thirty years following Moscow’s military operations in the Middle East, South Asia as well as other areas like the Caucuses, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan where there are large Muslim populations.
«They’re trying to punish Russia for its presence in countries that the Islamic State considers to be Muslim countries — considers to be countries that should be under their purview,» he said, emphasizing that to the Islamic State «we’re all enemies.»
«The United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, China — to them we’re occupiers. We’re all in one way or another a great Satin to them,» he said. «But I would just say that, but more importantly, the Russians are always a target, and Jihadists will take the opportunity to attack whenever they feel they can get one off.»
Russian firefighters search through rubble after the Moscow terror attack (Russian Ministry of Emergencies/Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images)
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White House national security adviser John Kirby said the U.S. is remaining «vigilant» when it comes to the threat ISIS poses to the U.S., and pointed out that Washington alerted Moscow to the possibility of such an attack weeks ago.
«It was because of the aggressive way in which we have been monitoring [ISIS-K] that we were able to give the Russians a warning,» he told reporters Monday. «Because we’re watching it very, very closely, we don’t see any sort of credible threat by ISIS to the American homeland.
«But again, not something we’re taking for granted,» he added.
JERUSALEM — President-elect Donald Trump’s victory Wednesday morning will likely lead to a new U.S. Middle East policy that will have a dramatic effect on Israel’s war against Iran-backed terrorist movements Hamas and Hezbollah, according to experts.
Fox News Digital reached out to leading U.S. and Israeli experts on the Middle East for their insights on the meaning of a second Trump term on the unfolding instability and wars in the region. The Iranian regime has aggressively backed Hamas and Hezbollah in their wars against the Jewish state for more than a year. Tehran has also launched two aerial drone and missile attacks on the Jewish state in 2024.
U.S.-Israel Mideast expert Caroline Glick, who served as an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Fox News Digital, «Trump’s policy of respecting the prerogatives of Israel’s democratically elected government will enable Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ministers to pursue their strategy of victory over Iran and its proxies to its successful conclusion. Israel does not seek direct U.S. involvement in the war. Rather, it hopes that the U.S. will provide it with diplomatic and other support to enable it to achieve victory against foes common to the U.S. and Israel.»
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-President Trump are shown during the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords at the White House on Sept. 15, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Glick added, «The Trump doctrine of minimizing U.S. involvement in the Middle East is predicated on supporting America’s allies, first and foremost Israel, in their bid to defeat their enemies, who are also America’s enemies. Trump support for an Israeli victory will enable the president to preside over a post-war period of calm and unprecedented peace, which is only possible after an Israeli victory.»
The Biden administration has faced criticism for its crackdown on Israel’s prosecution of the war against Hamas after the jihadi movement slaughtered nearly 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023, including more than 40 Americans. Biden reportedly withheld vital armaments at one point while Israel engaged in its existential war.
Glick has been a sharp critic of the Biden-Harris administration and said that «Iran continues to pursue nuclear weapons and to wage a seven-front war against Israel. The U.S. has protected Hamas’s regime in Gaza and Hezbollah’s control over Lebanon.»
Palestinian terrorists of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, take part in a military parade to mark the anniversary of the 2014 war with Israel on July 19, 2023, in Gaza. (MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)
Retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Amir Avivi, founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, told Fox News Digital that «President Trump’s win presents a huge opportunity for the Middle East to dismantle the Shiite axis [the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon] and restore security to the Middle East by signing peace agreements and creating a Western-Israel-Sunni alliance that will extend all the way to Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Oman.»
He added that peace and prosperity in the Middle East «requires dealing with the dangers of a nuclear Iran. Israel’s expectation is to see the U.S. leading a coalition that will deal militarily with the nuclear sites of Iran and possibly even bring down the regime and dismantle the Shiite axis that is endangering all the moderate states in the Middle East.»
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Members of the Basij paramilitary force are shown during a rally commemorating International Quds Day in downtown Tehran, Iran, on April 14, 2023. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Avivi said Israel has set the stage by destroying Hamas and is on the verge of destroying Hezbollah.
David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital, «The election of Trump will have a significant impact on Middle East policy. Iran and its proxies will feel profoundly threatened, but they will not give up. They cannot; it is a matter of regime survival for Iran.»
«Any Israeli hope harbored by some in Israel that now the United States will pick up the ball and join Israel in fighting this war, especially Iran itself, is a false hope,» Wurmser said. «Trump will let Israel do what it needs to do and protect it without reservation or restraint to do that, but it will not do it for Israel.»
«Another area in which there will be considerable American input will be the formation of the Middle East peace structure that expands the Abraham Accords without pressing the Saudi or others to deal with the Palestinian issue,» he said.
An IDF tank rolls through the Netzarim Corridor in Gaza. (IDF Spokesman’s Unit)
Trump’s signature first-term Middle East accomplishment was the Abraham Accords that established diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. Mideast experts said that had Trump not lost to Biden in the 2020 election, he could have secured a grand diplomatic recognition agreement between Saudi Arabia and the Jewish state.
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According to Wurmser, «The incoming administration will represent a paradigm shift where a strong Israel and a weak, besieged and retreating Iran will advance a regional alliance that challenges Iran and China and abandons the two-state Palestinian obsession of the Washington establishment as the guiding principle of policy.»
The Islamist government of Turkey’s strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will also likely meet resistance from Trump. Erdoğan, who supports the U.S.-designated terrorist entity Hamas, in July threatened to invade Israel to protect Palestinians. Erdoğan also provides material support for Hamas terrorists who live in Turkey.
An aircraft from the Israeli Air Force (IDF)
Efrat Aviv, a professor in the Department of General History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a leading expert on Turkey, told Fox News Digital that «Trump’s pro-Israel stance clashes with Erdoğan’s support for Hamas, which Turkey sees as freedom fighters. Turkey’s alleged involvement in facilitating Hamas’s activities, including granting them passports and aiding money laundering, complicates relations further.»
«Turkey found relief in Trump’s presidency, in contrast to Biden, who had criticized Erdoğan’s democratic backslide, notably excluding Turkey from the 2021 Summit for Democracy,» Aviv added. «Under Trump, American pastor Andrew Brunson was released from Turkish custody. However, despite Trump’s generally favorable stance, tensions persist. Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey five times during his tenure, and key issues, such as U.S. support for Kurdish groups and Turkey’s purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system, remain divisive.»
«Whether this marks the beginning of a new chapter or if tensions continue to overshadow their personal friendship remains to be seen,» noted Aviv.
There are skeptics who view Trump as shifting to a policy that will strong-arm Israel into a possible premature end to the war to root out Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip and eradicate Hezbollah terrorists and facilities on its northern border.
From left, Bahrain Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump and United Arab Emirates Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan participate in the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accords on Sept. 15, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
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Joel Rubin, a former deputy assistant secretary of state who served in the Obama administration, told Fox News Digital, «It’s an open question as to how a Trump 2.0 will operate in the Middle East. Unlike Trump 1.0, he has a much more isolationist VP in JD Vance, and he also at the same time told Netanyahu to finish up the war in Gaza. And while he has expressed an interest in a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, he has a history of taking aggressive actions against it, and his communications were targeted by the regime during his campaign, which may fuel distrust and suspicion.»
«But the fundamentals of his wanting to focus on domestic issues are what will likely drive his policy in the early days, while he works to avoid international entanglements,» Rubin added. «My bet is that if the Middle East flares into creating headaches for him, particularly through increasing wars, he will work to stamp them out while not having a very ambitious agenda towards resolving longstanding challenges between Israel and the Palestinians.»
What does President-elect Trump’s win mean for US amid war between Israel, Hamas?
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