MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. The US has backed itself into a corner by jumping the gun to lay blame on the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, outlawed in Russia) for the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall even as the incident was still in progress, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"The very fact that within the first 24 hours [after the attack], even before the fire was put out, the Americans started screaming that it wasn't Ukraine, I think, is a piece of incriminating evidence. I can't classify it otherwise; it is evidence in and of itself," the diplomat said on air during a Sputnik radio broadcast.
"The second fact to note concerns the clamor by the US that this assuredly was the work of ISIS (former name of IS - TASS)," the spokeswoman pointed out. "Of course, the speed with which they were able to [come to such forthright conclusions] is astonishing. It took them only a few hours to get to a microphone, turn on the lights, summon the press and draw a conclusion about who is to blame for this horribly bloody terrorist attack," Zakharova said.
"I think they’ve boxed themselves into a corner, because as soon as they started screaming that it was ISIS, all those people who work in international relations, who are political scientists and experts, recalled and reminded everyone else what ISIS really is," the diplomat said. "You are behind all those ISIS-type structures, you - the United States, Great Britain - yourselves brought them into being," she concluded.
Terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall
On the evening of March 22, a terrorist attack targeted the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Region, just over the Moscow city limits. The current death toll is 139, and 182 people were injured. Eleven individuals suspected of being involved in the terrorist attack have been apprehended, including four gunmen, who were detained in the Bryansk Region, southwest of Moscow, as they attempted to seek refuge by crossing the nearby Ukrainian border. President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address that, according to preliminary information, the Ukrainian side had prepared "a window" in the border especially for the terrorists to cross undetected. He promised to identify and punish all those who were behind the attack on Crocus City Hall.