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Surgut Attacker Reportedly Pledges Allegiance to IS in Suicide Video

Alexei Andronov / URA.RU / TASS

An Islamic State* affiliated media outlet has published a video reportedly featuring the perpetrator of a knife rampage in western Siberia last weekend in which seven people were injured.

The video was published by Furat Media, the Russian-language branch of Islamic State’s media apparatus, the SITE Intel Group said late on Monday. 

SITE identifies the masked man who features in the video as the individual responsible for the knife attack on bystanders in the city of Surgut on the morning of Aug. 19.

The attacker, who Russia’s investigative committee said was a resident of the city, was shot and killed by law enforcement on the scene.

The video circulating social media shows a balaclava-clad man sitting next to an axe and an IS flag. He speaks in heavily accented Russian and Arabic to describe the benefits of using “primitive weapons.”

IS earlier claimed the attack through the AMAQ news agency, but Russia’s investigative committee in an online statement cited the man’s possible psychiatric problems as a motive.

*Islamic State is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

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