Monday, February 8, 2016

Russia: FSB Security Forces apprehended 7 ISIS jihadists planning large scale terror attack in Moscow and St. Petersburg

(RT) Seven Islamic State members preparing terror acts in Moscow and St. Petersburg have been detained in the city of Ekaterinburg in the Urals Region, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said. The leader of the group came to Russia from Turkey.

After terror acts in Russia’s two largest cities, as well as the Sverdlovsk Region, where the city of Ekaterinburg is located, members of the terror group planned to flee to Syria where parts of territory are under control of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

The gunmen were planning to carry out "high-profile terrorist attacks using self-made explosive devices," the FSB said, as reported by Russian media.

The authorities also found IED components, electric detonators, hand grenades, handguns and extremist reading matter.

The extremists in the terror cell are citizens of Russia and some Central Asian countries.

MOSCOW, Russia (NBC) — Russia's security services arrested seven suspected ISIS militants who were planning terror attacks on St. Petersburg and Moscow, officials said Monday.

Russia's Federal Security Bureau, said explosives, detonators, grenades and guns were found in the homes of the detained suspects.

The suspects were planning to go fight with ISIS in Syria after carrying out their attacks in Russia, it said.

The seven — "citizens of Russia and [countries of] the Central Asian region" — were detained Sunday in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, some 900 miles to the east of Moscow, the FSB said in a statement.

They were preparing "terrorist attacks using homemade bombs to take place in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk region [whose capital is Yekaterinburg]," it added, saying the suspected ringleader had come to Russia from Turkey.

"Searches in the houses of the detained suspects have uncovered a D.I.Y. explosives lab, explosives, electric detonators, firearms, grenades, bomb components and extremist literature," the statement said.

Russia has been fighting in Syria's civil war for four months, launching attacks on groups including ISIS.