By Alex Rossi, international correspondent
Islamic State Khorasan (known as IS-K) have taken credit for other terror network’s attacks in the past - but this deadly assault near Moscow is almost certainly their doing, though nothing is impossible.
They have claimed responsibility, and the chatter picked up by Western intelligence services in the days leading up also indicated something was coming.
Khorasan is an ancient term referring to regions of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Iran.
IS-K's members are primarily disaffected fighters from the Pakistani Taliban but they also draw their numbers from other areas.
Central Asia is a fertile recruiting ground as are the restive republics of the Russian Federation, Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya.
As IS was gathering strength in Iraq and Syria, IS-K was emerging in eastern Afghanistan at the end of 2014 and into 2015.
US operations decimated their numbers but after the withdrawal in 2021 they renewed and grew.
The Taliban is now regularly engaged in combat against them and they threaten its ability to govern Afghanistan.
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-russia-news-putin-nuclear-live-updates-kyiv-12541713
