THE attack by camouflage-clad armed men on the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, where the rock-group Picnic was to hold a concert to a full house last March 22, had all the makings of an Islamic State (IS) operation.
The gunmen moved with military precision. They started the assault just as the audience composed mostly of young Muscovites were settled in their seats. Wire accounts of the incident talked about verified videos showing “people taking their seats in the hall, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams.”
Other videos documented gunmen shooting at groups of people running away or caught in a deadly stampede, while some victims lay motionless in pools of blood. Parts of the building were also burned, and fire was shown engulfing whole floors. If the viewer of the videos was not aware that these are actual footage of the assault, he/she could be fooled into believing that they are takes straight from a Hollywood movie.
‘Perhaps the government should once and for all assess the real situation of the Muslim security issue, and revise its strategy and policy to be able to deal the death blow to this pernicious problem.’
Investigation by Russian security forces revealed 137 individuals killed and over 180 wounded in the attack. The Islamist group Islamic State (IS)-Khorasan claimed responsibility for it. They leave us no reason to doubt that claim, although Russian security forces themselves are not about ready to believe this claim of responsibility. It is because the IS is known for their brutal and senseless attacks, whenever and wherever they plan to strike.
While we are thousands of kilometers away from this problem, the massacre of Russians resonates fully with Filipinos. There are nearly 19,500 Filipinos in Russia, of whom about 12,000 are in Moscow. It could be that a Filipino was inside that concert hall when the attack occurred and it was just plain luck there was no Filipino victim.
Filipinos are concerned, too, because IS is considered some sort of a “mother organization” of Dawla Islamiya, the Islamist terrorist gang that continues to cause havoc in several areas in Mindanao. They were tagged as the ones who ambushed three soldiers — killing two of them — just at the start of Ramadan this month. The irony here is that the soldiers were out buying food to be given to their Muslim friends for the evening meal.
Dawla Islamiya elements were also involved in the bombing of the Mindanao State University gymnasium during Sunday mass, killing several Catholic youths. Several years ago, the Dawla Islamiya partnered with the jihadist Maute terrorist group in launching the devastating “Marawi siege,” an ambitious operation to take over a key Philippine territory, from which Muslim residents in Marawi have not fully recovered.
The Armed Forces and the PNP have many times been at the receiving end of criticisms about their inability to strike deep into the ranks of Muslim extremists, whether Dawla Islamiya, Bangsamoro Freedom Fighters, Maute, or the “lost command” units of MILF and MNLF. Come to think of it, why are there so many of them?
From the time of the first Marcos presidency up to the present administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the government has spent billions of pesos, held intense and numerous peace negotiations here and abroad, and provided legislative solutions, but the Muslim rebellion persists to this day.
Perhaps the government should once and for all assess the real situation of the Muslim security issue, and revise its strategy and policy to be able to deal the death blow to this pernicious problem.
