Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it had detained seven people suspected of being members of the Islamic State that was planning large-scale terrorist acts in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Urals. The gunmen were preparing to carry out "high-profile terrorist attacks using self-made explosive devices," the FSB said.
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday that it had detained seven people suspected of being members of the Islamic State that was planning large-scale terrorist acts in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Urals. The gunmen were preparing to carry out "high-profile terrorist attacks using self-made explosive devices," the FSB said.
According to The New York Times, the agency said in a statement that the seven, who were detained in Yekaterinburg, a sprawling industrial city in the Ural Mountains, are citizens of Russia and Central Asian states, and that the cell was managed by a leader from Turkey.
While searching their apartments, officers discovered an explosives laboratory equipped with firearms and grenades. Moreover, there were found IED components, electric detonators, hand grenades, handguns and extremist reading matter. Members of the cell, via the FSB, planned to leave for Syria to fight alongside Islamic State militants after the attacks.
TASS informs that a criminal case has been opened into "terrorist attack," "ammunition trafficking" and "illegal storage of explosive substances." Now a search is underway to establish criminal ties of the detained men.
