The Kyrgyz government cooperating with the Russian security services announce the preliminary data. St. Petersburg bomber is identified as Akbarzhon Dzhalilov, born in 1995 and a native of Osh, native of Kyrgyzstan who had Russian citizenship. The suspect is believed to be responsible for the deadly blast in St. Petersburg, killing 14 and injuring more than 50.
The official government announcement left many other questions opened, including whether the authorities believed the terrorist had acted alone or in concert with others, whether he had any ties to Islamic or other militant groups.
It has been established that the explosive device may have been brought into action by a man whose fragmented remains were found in the third car of the train,” Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee, Russia’s federal criminal investigations body, said in a statement broadcast on state-run television.
“He has been identified, but information about him is not being disclosed yet for the benefit of the investigation.”
Former Soviet Union Central Asian states, which are predominantly Muslim, provided thousands of fighters for the Islamic State militant group. The Islamic State have periodically threatened Russia with retatliation for its intervention in the Syrian conflict.
However foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov, while not confirming any details of the investigation, said it was wrong to correlate the attack as a result of Russia’s intervention in Syria.
“As far as the discussions by several media outlets that the terrorist act is a revenge for our Syria policy, this is cynical and despicable,” he said during a news conference with his Kyrgyz counterpart, broadcast live on state television.
So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Monday, although Russian militants in Syria have threatened reprisals back home. A masked man driving across a desert landscape in a video posted on YouTube in July, threatned “Listen, Putin, we will come to Russia and kill you at your homes.”
