December 28, 2017

RUSSIA: Islamist Militants Bombed A Crowded Supermarket In St. Petersburg, Russia's Second Largest City On Wednesday. 13 People Injured.

Time.com
By Nataliya Valilyeva and Vlaimir Isachenkov, AP
Thursday December 28, 2017

(MOSCOW) — The explosion at a supermarket in Russia’s second-largest city was a terror attack, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, adding that he has ordered security agencies to kill terror suspects on the spot if they resist arrest.

Officials said 13 people were injured Wednesday when an improvised explosive device went off at a storage area for customers’ bags at the supermarket in St. Petersburg. Investigators said the device contained 200 grams (7 ounces) of explosives and was rigged with shrapnel to cause more damage.

While Russian law enforcement agencies stopped short of immediately describing the blast as a terror attack, Putin did not mince words Thursday at a Kremlin awards ceremony for Russian troops who fought in Syria.

“You know that yesterday a terror attack was conducted in St. Petersburg,” Putin said. He went on to note that another attack was thwarted recently, a reference to an alleged series of bombings in St. Petersburg that a CIA tip helped prevent, according to the Kremlin.

Putin said he told the chief of Russia’s main domestic security agency, the FSB, that agents who encounter resistance from terror suspects should “liquidate bandits on the spot.”

No one has claimed responsibility for the supermarket bomb. Eight of the injured remained hospitalized.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, would not offer any specifics on what led Putin to declare the attack an act of terrorism. The shrapnel that was part of the explosive device proved the explosion “was a terror attack anyway.”

Storage boxes at all Perekrestok supermarkets in St. Petersburg were removed following the attack. Other chains said they would tighten security measures.

Earlier this month, Putin telephoned President Donald Trump to thank him for what the Kremlin described as a CIA tip that prevented more bombings in St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown.

The Federal Security Service said seven suspects linked to the Islamic State group were arrested in connection to the alleged plot. The Kremlin said the suspects had planned to bomb Kazan Cathedral and other crowded sites.

In April, a suicide bombing in St. Petersburg’s subway left 16 people dead and wounded more than 50. Russian authorities identified the bomber as a 22-year old Kyrgyz-born Russian national.
I want you to notice that the Associated Press did not bother to mention the suicide bomber that targeted the subway was an Islamist. (emphasis mine)

FOX News 4/4/2017: St. Petersburg subway blast: Killer may have met accomplices in Moscow

The man believed to have launched the suicide bombing on a subway train in St. Petersburg, Russia, killing 13 other people, visited his home country of Kyrgyzstan a month ago and may have met with accomplices in Moscow on his way back, Russian media reported Tuesday.

Akbardzhon Dzhalilov, 22, was named as the killer by Russia's Investigative Committee. Detectives said they also found his DNA on a bag holding a second bomb in a nearby subway station -- which crews defused before it could explode.

Before naming him, Russian investigators linked the suspected attacker to radical Islamic terror groups. They said he himself carried the deadly bomb on the train in a backpack.

One former colleague at the sushi chain described Dzhalilov, who turned 22 on Saturday, as "a non-conflict person." Neighbors in Osh also described him as a nice and friendly man.

Both bombs were filled with shrapnel, Sky News reported. The unexploded device was rigged with up to 2.2 pounds of explosives, Russian media reported.

In the past two decades, Russian trains and planes have been frequent targets of attack, usually blamed on Islamic militants. The last confirmed attack was in October 2015 when Islamic State militants downed a Russian airliner heading from an Egyptian resort to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 people on board.
During his remarks at the Kremlin awards ceremony, Putin said Russia’s 2-year military campaign in Syria helped eliminate militants who threatened Russia.

He has previously said that over 4,000 citizens from Russia and some 5,000 people from other ex-Soviet nations have joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

“What would have happened if those hundreds, thousands … had come back to us, trained, armed and well-prepared?” Putin said.

RT News
written by Staff
Thursday December 28, 2017

A CCTV camera has captured a suspect in the investigation into Wednesday’s blast in Russia’s St. Petersburg. The incident left 13 people injured and was called a terrorist attack by the Russian leader.

The video purportedly shows a man carrying a rucksack entering the store which was later rocked by an explosion, according to Russian online newspaper Fontanka. In the footage published on Thursday, the man is seen leaving his rucksack in a storage locker at 6:16pm local time (3:16 GMT), just half an hour before the explosion tore through the busy supermarket. The suspect’s face is not clearly seen in the footage and his head is covered by a hood. Less than 30 seconds later he left the shop carrying nothing on his back.

The alleged attacker reportedly arrived by shuttle bus. Fontanka reports that he pretended to look at wares for around half a minute before leaving the place without his belongings. However, the video does not show him wandering about the shop. After the man went out, he reportedly blended in with the crowd.

"My mother was standing at the cash desk, she was the first in line. When she was paying for the purchases, the blast went off," Maksim Dorofeyev told RT's Ruptly agency at a St. Petersburg hospital. Dorofeyev added that initially he had not known what was going on, and only recalled seeing pieces of ceiling on his shoulders.

"I started to look for my mom, and saw her standing by the storage locker. Her coat was on fire," the man said, adding that they were among the last to leave the scene, as "everyone who could move had run away."

Maksim's mother, Alla Dorofeyeva, is now also in hospital with head and leg injuries. She told Ruptly that she had only seen pieces of ceiling falling down in almost complete darkness.

"I lost my eyesight for a while, it all went black. I couldn't understand where I was, and then I saw my son. I couldn't hear either, but I read his lips. He was screaming, 'Let's get away from here, now!'

"That's how it happens – you go to a local store to get some bread, and might never come back," the woman added, saying she was still in shock.

A total of thirteen people were injured in Wednesday’s explosion, with eight still remaining in hospital. The blast, equivalent to 200 grams of TNT, was caused by a homemade explosive device filled with lethal fragments. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a terrorist attack and ordered law enforcement to “kill the assailants” if they offer resistance. The police are investigating the attack and so far have not revealed any further details.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 4:53 PM

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