Russia: Counterterrorism prevents terrorist attack in Dagestan

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Commission (NAC) said today it had prevented a terrorist attack in Dagestan, an unstable Muslim republic in the Russian Caucasus, by killing a man who was about to attack police, the APE reported.

The man, who was neutralized during the operation in the capital Makhachkala, had previously been convicted of terrorist acts and planned to attack law enforcement officers, the NAC said in a statement, noting at the scene that an exchange of gunfire had taken place. An automatic weapon, ammunition, an improvised explosive device were found ready for use, as well as other evidence of the gang’s criminal intentions.

The same statement said that the coordinated actions of the secret services and the police made it possible to prevent a terrorist crime that could have killed civilians and police officers.

A video released by the NIS shows several men in the uniform of the Federal Security Service (FSB) leading the operation in the city of Mahackala in Dagestan.

The Russian Caucasus has experienced two bloody clashes in the 1990s and 2000s between federal forces and Chechen separatists, who have been active in other democracies in the region, reaching the point of promising to establish an “Islamic State” in June 2015. .

Although the influence of the jihadist group remains limited, they periodically carry out attacks particularly on Chechnya and Dagestan where they target the authorities.

In December, six police officers were injured in a suicide bombing in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia. Authorities also said they had foiled a plot by Islamic State (ISIS) to attack Dagestan.