Russian metro bomb suspect a Muslim born in central Asia: investigators

[webfact]

Russian metro bomb suspect a Muslim born in central Asia: investigators

By Denis Pinchuk and Hulkar Isamova

 

Suspect Akbarzhon Jalilov is shown in this police handout photo, obtained by 5th Channel, Russia April 4, 2017. 5th Channel Russia/via Reuters

 

OSH, Kyrgyzstan/ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A Russian suicide bomber originally from mainly Muslim Kyrgyzstan detonated the explosives in a St Petersburg train carriage that killed 14 people and wounded 50, authorities said on Tuesday.

 

The suspect had radical Islamist links, Russian media cited law enforcement officials as saying, raising the possibility Monday's attack could have been inspired by Islamic State, which has not struck a major city in Russia before. So far, no-one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

 

Kyrgyz officials identified the suspect as Akbarzhon Jalilov, born in the city of Osh in 1995, and Russian officials confirmed his identity, saying he had also left a bomb found at another metro station before it went off.

 

Biographical details pieced together from social media and Russian officials suggested Jalilov was an fairly typical young St Petersburg resident with an interest in Islam as well as pop music and martial arts but no obvious links to militants.

 

His uncle, Eminzhon Jalilov, told Reuters by telephone that his nephew was a mosque-attending Muslim, but that he was "not a fanatic".

 

The explosion in the middle of Monday afternoon occurred when the train was in a tunnel deep underground, amplifying the force of the blast. The carriage door was blown off, and witnesses described seeing injured passengers with bloodied and blackened bodies.

 

State investigative authorities said fragments of the body of the suspect had been found among the dead, indicating that he was a suicide bomber.

 

"From the genetic evidence and the surveillance cameras there is reason to believe that the person behind the terrorist act in the train carriage was the same one who left a bag with an explosive device at the Ploshchad Vosstaniya station," they said in a statement.

 

Russia has been on alert against attacks in reprisal for its military intervention in Syria, where Moscow's forces have been supporting troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad against Western-backed armed groups as well as the hardline Islamic State (IS) which grew out of the conflict.

 

IS, now under attack by all sides in Syria's multi-faceted war, has repeatedly threatened revenge and been linked to recent bombings elsewhere in Europe.

 

If it is confirmed that the metro bomber was linked to radical Islamists, it could provoke anger among some Russians at Moscow's decision to intervene in Syria, a year before an election which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win.

 

PREVIOUS BOMBING

 

Officials said they were treating the blast as an act of terrorism, but there was no official confirmation of any link to Islamist radicals.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was cynical to say the bombing in St Petersburg was revenge for Russia's role in Syria. He said the attack showed that Moscow needed to press on with its fight against global terrorism.

 

A page on social media site VKontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, belonging to someone with the same name and year of birth as Jalilov, included photos of him relaxing with friends in a bar, smoking from a hookah pipe. He was dressed in jackets and a baseball cap.

 

A Reuters reporter visited a house in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, which neighbours said was the family home of Jalilov. The home, a modest but well-maintained one-storey brick building, was empty.

 

Neighbours said Jalilov was from a family of ethnic Uzbeks, and that while they knew his parents they had not seen the young man for years. They said his father worked as a panel-beater in a car repair shop.

 

"They are a very good family. Always friendly, never argue. And they have good kids," one of the neighbours, Mirkomil Akhmadaliyev, told Reuters.

 

Later on Tuesday, Jalilov's mother appeared but refused to speak to reporters, saying she needed to retrieve something and hurry back to a security service office.

 

Osh is part of the Fergana Valley, a fertile strip of land that straddles Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which is mainly populated by ethnic Uzbeks. It has a tradition of Islamist radicalism and hundreds of people have set out from the area to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

 

A blast at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Eve that killed 39 people involved a suspect from the same part of central Asia. The bomber in that attack said he had been acting under the direction of IS militants in Syria.

 

Jalilov's uncle said his nephew moved to Russia in 2012. He is registered at an upscale apartment in the north of St Petersburg, according to a source in the Russian authorities, and he has a Daewoo Nexia car registered in his name.

 

A man who said he was a representative of the apartment's owner told Reuters that Jalilov had never actually lived there, but had given the address as his residence in official documents.

 

His VKontakte page included links to a site featuring sayings from Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, an eighteenth century preacher on whose teaching Wahhabism, a conservative and hardline branch of Islam, is based. But there were no links to Islamist militants.

 

PUTIN VISIT "NOTEWORTHY"

 

Russia's health minister Veronika Skvortsova said on Tuesday that the death toll from the blast, which hit at 2:40 p.m. (1140 GMT), had risen to 14, with 50 wounded.

 

St Petersburg television showed footage of the corpse of a man they said was the perpetrator. The man, with a close-cropped beard, resembled footage of a young man wearing a blue beanie hat and a jacket with a fur-lined hood captured on closed circuit television identified by Russian media as a suspect.

 

"It has been ascertained that an explosive device could have been detonated by a man, fragments of whose body were found in the third carriage of the train," Russia's state investigative committee said in a statement.

 

"The man has been identified but his identity will not be disclosed for now in the interests of the investigation," the statement added.

 

President Putin, who was visiting St Petersburg at the time of the blast, went to the site late on Monday.

 

The Kremlin said it was "noteworthy" that Putin had been in the city. It did not elaborate, but said such attacks on Russia were a challenge for every citizen, including the president.

 

Two years ago, Islamic State said it had brought down a plane carrying Russian tourists home from a Red Sea resort. All 224 people on board the flight were killed.

 

Monday's blast raised security fears beyond Russian frontiers. France, which has itself suffered a series of attacks, announced additional security measures in Paris.

 

(Additional reporting by Svetlana Reiter, Katya Golubkova, Polina Nikolskaya, Sujata Rao, Alexander Winning and Maria Tsvetkova in MOSCOW and Olga Dzyubenko in BISHKEK, writing by Philippa Fletcher; editing by Christian Lowe and Sonya Hepinstall)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-04-05

 

[Skeptic7]

Shocking headline, that. Big surprise there...NOT! 

[phantomfiddler]

A muslim ? Who would have believed that ? Everyone, even before the news was out !

[steven100]

another muslim nutter ....   !!    get rid of them all before they become to entrenched in their caliphid crusade  ...  

[Skeptic7]

3 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

A muslim ? Who would have believed that ? Everyone, even before the news was out !

Gave your post a Like, because I liked it and agree with the sentiment...but you're incorrect saying 'everyone'. Not by a long shot. Shortly the overly PC TV crowd will be labeling us bigots and haters. Also, just watch Bill Maher's show from 3/24/17 or Google the Ben Affleck episode from last year. There are MANY bleeding heart deniers out there who refuse to admit that Islam and it's followers are responsible for acts of terror and deaths of innocents around the world on an almost daily basis. As Maher so succinctly put it, every time they yell aluah Akbar or some similar nonsense, but never hear a Christian crazy shout Merry Christmas before killing people or blowing shit up. 

[Beats56]

Fiqures

[7by7]

5 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Shortly the overly PC TV crowd will be labeling us bigots and haters

The difference between those you label  "the overly PC TV crowd" and those who share your views is simple.

 

We know that Islamic terrorism is the biggest threat to our world today. We condemn it, we condemn all the atrocious acts of murder committed in it's name and we support the security services and armed forces who are fighting it.

 

Unlike you, though, we also know that the vast majority of Muslims share that condemnation, share the support for the security services; as has been shown time and time again in many topics here.

[Skeptic7]

2 hours ago, 7by7 said:

The difference between those you label  "the overly PC TV crowd" and those who share your views is simple.

 

We know that Islamic terrorism is the biggest threat to our world today. We condemn it, we condemn all the atrocious acts of murder committed in it's name and we support the security services and armed forces who are fighting it.

 

Unlike you, though, we also know that the vast majority of Muslims share that condemnation, share the support for the security services; as has been shown time and time again in many topics here.

Unlike you, who is a fine example of a fact-maker-upper, I tend to go with actual statistics. Here's some factual evidence that shows your "vast majority" crap just doesn't flush...

http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/

https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/opinion-polls.aspx#violence

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264492/moderate-muslim-majority-myth-william-kilpatrick

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/738852/British-Muslims-Sharia-Law-enforced-UK-Islam-poll

[7by7]

43 minutes ago, Skeptic7 said:

Unlike you, who is a fine example of a fact-maker-upper, I tend to go with actual statistics. Here's some factual evidence that shows your "vast majority" crap just doesn't flush...

http://www.pewforum.org/2013/04/30/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-society-beliefs-about-sharia/

https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/opinion-polls.aspx#violence

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/264492/moderate-muslim-majority-myth-william-kilpatrick

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/738852/British-Muslims-Sharia-Law-enforced-UK-Islam-poll

 

Your first link doesn't say what you think it does. For example

Quote

Although many Muslims around the world say sharia should be the law of the land in their country, the survey reveals divergent opinions about the precise application of Islamic law.¹⁴ Generally, supporters of sharia are most comfortable with its application in cases of family or property disputes.

 Your next two links are to propaganda sites, well known for heavily editing facts, quoting out of context and even lying. One of them posted as fact the absurd assertion by an idiot American that Birmingham was a 100% Muslim city where non Muslims feared to tread!

 

You should have read all of the Express article rather than just the headline. Like the Pew Research article you posted, it does not say what you think it does. For example

Quote

It found 93 per cent of respondents had a fairly strong or very strong attachment to Britain and more than half wanted to fully integrate with non-Muslims in all aspects of life.

More Muslims condemned terrorism than the rest of the population - 90 per cent to 84 per cent - and 55 per cent wanted to see extra police on the streets. 

 

Myself an others have posted numerous examples Muslims condemning Islamic terrorism; the latest being in this post:

 

[Rigby40]

Wow, we've been really getting an extra dose of peace and love from the religion of peace lately! 

[Skeptic7]

1 hour ago, 7by7 said:

 

Your first link doesn't say what you think it does. For example

 Your next two links are to propaganda sites, well known for heavily editing facts, quoting out of context and even lying. One of them posted as fact the absurd assertion by an idiot American that Birmingham was a 100% Muslim city where non Muslims feared to tread!

 

You should have read all of the Express article rather than just the headline. Like the Pew Research article you posted, it does not say what you think it does. For example

 

Myself an others have posted numerous examples Muslims condemning Islamic terrorism; the latest being in this post:

 

Read them all in their entirety. Of course one can cherry pick a single item, as you did, but the fact remains that your 'vast majority' crap just don't flush and is clogging the commode. 

 

All religions have their bad ideas, but Islam is the mother lode of bad ideas and those followers, even so-called 'moderates' aren't actually anywhere near moderate enough, nor are they opposing those bad ideas and violence even slightly enough. 

[steven100]

10 hours ago, 7by7 said:

we also know that the vast majority of Muslims share that condemnation,

well it's a pity they wouldn't damn well start showing it     !!

 

 

[7by7]

15 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Read them all in their entirety. Of course one can cherry pick a single item, as you did, but the fact remains that your 'vast majority' crap just don't flush and is clogging the commode. 

I did.

 

You provided links to articles which you said was "factual evidence that shows your "vast majority" crap just doesn't flush."

 

I quoted from one of your sources which says that "More Muslims condemned terrorism than the rest of the population - 90 per cent to 84 per cent."

 

If you do not consider 90% to be the vast majority, that is the fault of your maths teachers when you were at school!

 

9 hours ago, steven100 said:

19 hours ago, 7by7 said:

we also know that the vast majority of Muslims share that condemnation

well it's a pity they wouldn't damn well start showing it     !!

 As has been repeatedly shown; they do. I provided a link to a post in which I provided links to some more examples of this in my previous. To save you the effort of clicking on that link, I'll repeat them here.

 

Sunnis do condemn ISIS and other Islamic terrorists. How 70,000 Muslim Clerics Are Standing Up To Terrorism

Quote

Almost 70,000 Muslim clerics have come together to pass a fatwa against global terrorist organizations, including the Taliban, al Qaeda and the militant group that calls itself the Islamic State.

During an annual gathering of South Asian Sunni Muslims in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh this week, almost 1.5 million attendees signed a document protesting global terrorist activity, according to The Times of India.

 

As do Shias.Isis concern: British Muslim leaders condemn extremist group

Quote

Representatives from both the Sunni and Shia groups in the UK met at the Palace of Westminster and relayed their message that the militant group does not represent the majority of Muslims.

 

Muslim Leaders Worldwide Condemn ISIS

Quote

Vatican Radio – an official Vatican news site – reported last month:

Two of the leading voices in the Muslim world denounced the persecution of Christians in Iraq, at the hands of extremists proclaiming a caliphate under the name Islamic State.

The most explicit condemnation came from Iyad Ameen Madani, the Secretary General for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the group representing 57 countries, and 1.4 billion Muslims.

 

There are more examples here: Think Muslims Haven’t Condemned ISIS? Think Again (some are also in the link above).

 

These are just very few of the instances you will find if you care to look.

 

[RickBradford]

16 hours ago, Rigby40 said:

Wow, we've been really getting an extra dose of peace and love from the religion of peace lately! 

Yes, this cultural enrichment we've seen in London, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Nice, Madrid and now Moscow -- so idyllic and uplifting.