The Federal Security Service of Russia, which is also known as the FSB, has reportedly foiled a terrorist attack by the Islamic State group — also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — in Moscow, and arrested four people who are suspected to have been involved in planning to carry out the attack.
The group “included several Tajikistan nationals and a Moldovan national and plotted a series of high-profile terrorist attacks in Moscow involving the detonation of powerful improvised explosive devices,” the FSB report released on Thursday said. The FSB said it detained four members of the group on Thursday, seizing automatic firearms, explosives, and parts for manufacturing IEDs.
The police report continued:
“The terrorist attacks were being plotted under a direct order by a Turkey-based affiliate of the international terrorist organisation Islamic State, which is outlawed in Russia.”
The Russian security agency said the attack had been planned by a top commander of ISIS hailing from Turkey. The report added that Tajikistan had put this commander on an international list of individuals wanted for their criminal activities, including terrorism. The FSB also said that it had seized automatic weapons, ammunition, IEDs and chemicals that could be used to make high-intensity explosives. It may be mentioned here that a recent report had claimed the terrorist group was making weapons that could compete in quality with the militaries of several countries. It is not known at this point if the weapons seized are of that quality.
