Russia’s FSB security service confirmed on Thursday that an operation against a suspected unit of the Islamic State (IS) militant group was carried out in the vicinity of Kaluga, southwest of Moscow.
Russian media reported that two suspects of Kazakh origin who arrived in Russia in February were shot during this operation.
“The Kazakh citizenship and arrival in Russia of these two individuals have been confirmed,” Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (KNB) said in a statement on Saturday.
The KNB said the former Soviet republic’s authorities had launched an investigation in “close” cooperation with the FSB.
The FSB said on Thursday that it had shut down a cell of the Islamic State of Khorasan (IS-K), the IS branch that operates mainly in Afghanistan.
The US Embassy in Moscow on Thursday advised US citizens to avoid large gatherings in the Russian capital for 48 hours, warning that with Russia’s presidential election just days away, “extremists plan to attack large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts, in the near future.”
Last Sunday, Russian authorities announced that they had killed six suspected IS militants in the Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.
IS’s influence in Russia is limited, despite several attacks in recent years, primarily in the Muslim-majority republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan in the North Caucasus.
According to official data, almost 4,500 Russians, mostly from the North Caucasus, have fought on the IS side.
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2024-04-15 01:37:31