Researcher of Caucasus doubt combat experience of attackers on ROVD

The "Islamic State" (IS) has not yet claimed responsibility for the attack on the ROVD (District Interior Division) in the Stavropol Territory, emphasized the experts questioned by the "Caucasian Knot". The experts suppose that the attack could be committed by residents of the region without combat experience, who had fallen under the influence of the IS propaganda.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that today an attack was committed on the building of the Novoselitsk ROVD. According to law enforcement bodies, as a result of the attack there were no civilian or police casualties; only the three attackers themselves died: two were killed and one committed a self-explosion. A law enforcement source has stated that the attack was committed by three residents of one of local villages.

Mikhail Roschin, Senior Research Officer of the Centre for Central Asia, the Caucasus and the Volga-Ural Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), has called on to wait for the information about what terrorist organization to claim responsibility for the attack on the ROVD in the Stavropol Territory.

"Of course, now we can blame the 'Islamic State' of all the incidents. However, given the fact that the explosion occurred in the village and not in a large city, the incident seems to be quite absurd," emphasized Mikhail Roschin.

In turn, Orkhan Djemal, a Forbes reporter, has suggested that "people involved in the attack on the ROVD had unilaterally sworn allegiance to the IS". "It is most likely a case of 'self-recruitment' or 'self-declaration'. It is unlikely that the IS was involved in the incident, since having the significant combat experience, the terrorists would have given the advice how to act," Orkhan Djemal believes.

"Given the situation in which the incident happened, it was committed by youngsters, who did not have any idea of how to attack a fortified point," Orkhan Djemal told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.