The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday it
had uncovered a cell of the militant Islamic State (IS) group that was
planning imminent terror attacks in the country's second city Saint
Petersburg.
“The FSB identified and stopped the
activities of a clandestine cell of IS supporters who planned to commit
attacks on December 16,” the security service said in a statement
carried by Russian news agencies.
According to the FSB, the group planned a suicide attack and “the killing of citizens” in crowded areas of the northern city.
Seven
members of the cell were arrested during raids that took place on
Wednesday and Thursday. The police confiscated a “large number of
explosives used to make homemade bombs, automatic rifles, munitions and
extremist literature,” the statement said.
On Tuesday,
FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said Russia was on alert for the possible
return of militants from Syria ahead of the World Cup and the
presidential election in 2018.
As many as 40,000 fighters
travelled from all over the world, including Russia, to join the IS in
Syria after the 2014 declaration of its self-styled “caliphate”
straddling Syria and Iraq.
In 2015, Russian security
services estimated that 2,900 Russian citizens had joined the IS group,
as well as “several thousand” Central Asians. Russia has suffered
several terrorist assaults in recent years, including a deadly attack in
Saint Petersburg that left 14 dead in April this year.
