‘Two Moscow massacre suspects flew from Turkey’

A Turkish security official said on Tuesday that two of the suspects in the Moscow concert hall massacre traveled “freely” to Russia, as no arrest warrants were issued against them.

Russian authorities detained 11 people in connection with Friday’s attack, which saw camouflaged gunmen storm into northern Moscow’s Crocus City Hall, open fire on concertgoers and set the building ablaze, killing at least 139 people.

Two of those, Tajiks Rachabalizoda Saidakrami and Shamsidin Fariduni, “were able to travel freely between Russia and Turkey, since there was no warrant for their arrest,” the official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.

The two had both spent time in Turkey shortly before the attack and entered Russia together on the same flight from the northwestern city of Istanbul, the official said.

The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group has said it was responsible for the Moscow attack, and ISaffiliated media channels have published graphic videos of the gunmen inside the venue.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday acknowledged for the first time that “radical Islamists” were behind last week’s attack, but suggested that they were linked to Ukraine.

Turkish authorities, meanwhile, have rounded up scores of suspects with alleged links to IS extremists in nationwide raids, a government minister said on Tuesday.

During simultaneous raids carried out in 30 cities across the country, 147 suspects were detained, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced on social media.

Turkish authorities established that one suspect, Fariduni, entered Turkey on February 20 and returned to Russia via Istanbul’s airport on March 2.

The suspect checked into a hotel in the city’s conservative Fatih neighborhood on February 21 and checked out six days later.

During his initial questioning, he admitted having traveled to Turkey because his visa in Russia had expired, the Turkish official said.

Fariduni posted eight times on his social media account on February 23, with the location set as “Aksaray Istanbul,” and the pictures apparently showing the Fatih Mosque, the official added.

The other suspect, Saidakrami, arrived in Istanbul on January 5. He checked into a hotel in Fatih the same day and checked out on January 21.

He then returned to Moscow on March 2 on the same flight as Fariduni, the Turkish official said.

“We assess that both individuals became radicalized in Russia, given the short amount of time they spent in Turkey,” he told AFP.

The official said Turkey would continue to fight all terror groups, including IS, “without interruption.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the Moscow attack in a phone call with Putin last weekend, with whom he has forged close ties.

Erdogan told Putin that Turkey was ready to cooperate with Moscow in the fight against terror, the former’s office said.