Russia says foiled IS-led suicide bomb attacks in Moscow

MOSCOW: Russia’s FSB security service said that it had captured a gang planning major attacks on Moscow transport networks and shopping centres, directed by members of the Islamic State jihadist group from Syria.

Security officers detained members of the group outside Moscow as they plotted “a series of terrorist attacks in crowded public places including on public transport and in major shopping centres in Moscow using suicide bombers and powerful explosive devices,” the FSB said.

It said that four people were captured, three from Central Asia and one a Russian citizen.

Three of the men, all from Tajikistan, appeared Monday in court, which placed them in custody for two months on charges of planning an attack as a group, punishable by up to 20 years in jail, as well as weapons offences.

Two of the men made confessions of guilt in court, TASS state news agency reported. Russian television showed the men led into the court bent over with arms handcuffed behind their backs.

Russian television reported that the Russian national who did not appear in court was the group’s leader.

The FSB said it had determined that the attacks were being organised by IS warlords and emissaries who are in Syria, which it identified as TM Nazarov and AM Shirindzhonov.

Media outlets in Tajikistan reported this month that a man named Todzhiddin Nazarov, also known as Abu Osama Noraka, had appeared in IS video statements from Syria posted on pro-jihadist sites.

The FSB said officers raided a bomb-making laboratory outside Moscow and captured the group’s coordinator, an IS emissary in Russia, as well as an explosives expert and two potential suicide bombers.