RUSSIA has arrested and paraded three more terror suspects in connection with the Moscow concert hall massacre that left 139 dead.
Two brothers, Aminchon and Dilovar Islomov, and their father Isroil Islomov are accused of aiding and abetting terrorism.
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The three men were dragged into glass cages as a court ordered them to be placed in pre-trial detention until May 22.
The defendants are accused of being part of an ISIS splinter cell that carried out and assisted in the planning and escape of the gunmen who opened fire at Crocus City Hall on Friday.
Russia claims that Dilovar, 24, was the owner of the white Renault car that Russia the four suspected shooters used to flee the scene.
However, the three men, who all worked in northwestern Russia’s Tver region, have protested their innocence.
Dilovar claims that he sold the car a week before the attack.
“I was shocked when I saw photographs [of the car at the crime scene],” he was quoted saying by independent Russian outlet Novaya Gazeta.
An unnamed relative told the outlet that the three men had contacted the police themselves.
Vladimir Putin declared Sunday a national day of mourning and yesterday the death toll form the massacre was raised to 139 with over 180 wounded.
A barbaric ISIS faction operating in Afghanistan, known as ISIS-K, has claimed responsibility for the terror attack – the worst to hit Russia in 20 years.
Russian authorities confirmed that the four alleged shooters detained on Saturday are from Tajikistan, and added that the other seven suspects are all foreign nationals.
The four “direct” suspects, who have been named as Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, 32, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, 30, Mukhammadsobir Fayzov, 19, and Shamsidin Fariduni, 25, have been charged with terrorism.
They were hauled into court with cuts and bruises, one without an ear, another with a plastic bag still around his neck and a third unconscious in a wheelchair.
For days, Russian officials had attempted to shift the blame onto Kyiv.
Deranged Putin even spewed baseless claims that the suspects were headed straight for Ukraine, where they had “connections”.
On Monday, he finally admitted the perpetrators were “radical Islamists”. Yet, he still doubled down on his claims that Ukraine had ordered the attack as an “act of intimidation”.
Putin’s security services have been releasing gruesome footage of their interrogations, including a grisly video of Rachabalizoda being fed his own sliced off ear.
Another suspect Fariddun was filmed with his genitals hooked up to a battery and being given electric shocks as he foamed at the mouth.
The grotesque and public display of torture is Putin’s attempt to send a “brazen” warning of what will happen to anyone who crosses him, Russia expert Dr Stephen Hall warned The Sun.
Their ongoing torture has drawn a chilling threat from ISIS who vowed revenge and said that abusing and beating them only increased the “bloodlust for thousands of their brothers”.
What happened?
On Friday evening, four camouflaged gunmen storming Crocus City Hall and opened fire on the crowd before setting the venue ablaze as they screamed “kill them all”.
Some 6,000 people are believed to have been inside the venue watching Russian rock band Picnic when the bloodshed began.
The gunmen began shooting civilians at point-blank range – through glass doors, turnstiles and then the concert hall itself, traumatised witnesses said.
The bodies of whole families were found with dead mothers embracing their dead children.
Russian officials expect the death toll to still rise as more bodies are found and dozens are still in “critical” condition in hospital.
It has also emerged that Putin, 71, rubbished warnings from the US and UK about an “imminent” terror attack just three days before.
British and US intelligence services alerted Russia earlier this month of the threat of a terror attack on Moscow – something the Kremlin sought to downplay, describing it as “provocative”.
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Who are ISIS-K and why would they attack Putin’s Russia?
RUSSIA is reeling after four terror suspects violently murdered 139 people in Friday’s Crocus City Hall massacre in Moscow.
But despite Vladimir Putin’s attempts to place the blame on Ukraine, it is a regional branch of the Islamic State terrorist group, ISIS-K, who have stepped forward and claimed accountability for the horror attack.
Who are ISIS-K?
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.
One of the most active regional affiliates of the Islamic State militant group, ISIS-K has seen its membership decline since peaking around 2018, with the Taliban and US forces inflicting heavy losses.
But it is feared that ISIS-K has been quietly recruiting and growing its numbers once more and is considered an ongoing threat by the US.
General Michael Kurilla, the commander of US Central Command, told Congress last March that ISIS-K was quickly developing the ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia.
Friday’s attack has seen Isis-K has take over from Chechen rebels as the perpetrators of the most serious attacks in Russia, including the bombing of the St Petersburg metro in 2017, which left 15 dead.
What attacks have the carried out?
ISIS-K has a history of attacks, including against mosques, inside and outside Afghanistan.
In September 2022, ISIS-K militants claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul.
The group was also responsible for an attack on Kabul’s international airport in 2021 that killed 13 US troops and scores of civilians during the chaotic US evacuation from the country.
Isis-K has been behind a series of smaller-scale plots, including an attempt earlier this month to attack a synagogue in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.
Why would they attack Russia?
Jihadist terrorist movements have long posed a serious threat to Russia.
While the attack by ISIS-K in Russia on Friday was a dramatic escalation, experts said the group has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
The group is also believed to see Russia as equivalent to the US in its “hatred” for Islam.
“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years, frequently criticising Putin in its propaganda,” said Colin Clarke of Soufan Center, a New York-based research group.
Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims.”
He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants with their own grievances against Moscow.
