The spokesperson for the Islamic State praised the group’s attack that killed more than 140 people in a Russian concert hall near Moscow.

Abu Huthaifa al-Ansari was speaking in a recorded message posted on Thursday on the militant group’s Telegram channel.

Al-Ansari also reiterated urging the group’s supporters to target “crusaders” everywhere, especially in the US, Europe and Israel.

“We ask God that you make it to Palestine so you could fight the Jews face to face in an endless religious war,” he said.

Russian investigators said on Thursday they had found proof that the concert hall gunmen were linked to “Ukrainian nationalists”, an assertion immediately dismissed by the US as baseless propaganda.

Eleven people were arrested in the first 24 hours after the shooting and eight of them, including the four suspected gunmen, have been placed in pre-trial detention. Seven are from the Central Asian state of Tajikistan and the other from Kyrgyzstan.

Drone barrage

Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, with a mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country, Ukraine’s armed forces said.

Air raid warnings rang out across the country, with 10 Ukrainian regions coming under fire, the country’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in recent days, launching several missile barrages on the capital, Kyiv, and hitting energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian aerial attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod. Such sporadic attacks, however, have been common throughout the war.

Large-scale blackouts have already affected Ukraine’s eastern city of Kharkiv, where 700,000 people lost power after the city’s thermal power plant was hit in a drone and missile attack on March 22. In the winter of 2022-23, Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing frequent blackouts across the country.