Russian spy chief says more than 20 arrested over deadly concert attack

Al Jazeera:

Russia has arrested more than 20 people in connection with an attack that killed more than 140 people at a concert hall near Moscow in March, the head of the FSB security service said, adding for the first time that the ISIL (ISIS) group coordinated the assault.

ISIL has claimed responsibility on multiple occasions for the March 22 attack, but Russia has repeatedly tried to link Ukraine and the West to the attack.

FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov was quoted as saying by the Ria Novosti news agency on Friday that “preparations, the financing, the attack and the retreat of the terrorists were coordinated via the internet by members of Khorasan Province [ISKP or ISIS-K],” an ISIL branch active in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Bortnikov did not discard the Ukrainian angle in his statements on Friday, for which it has not provided evidence, saying that “upon completing the attack, the terrorists received clear instructions to move toward the Ukrainian border, where from the other side a ‘window’ had been prepared for them.”

“The investigation continues, but it can already be said with certainty that Ukrainian military intelligence is directly implicated in the attack,” he said.

Kyiv has dismissed the allegation as absurd.