A Muslim terrorist who planned to attack a Moscow Jewish institution and the capital’s metro was killed in a shootout with Russian security forces, the country’s Federal Security Service announced on Monday.
The terrorist “intended to detonate homemade explosive devices in a religious Jewish institution in the Moscow region and at one of the Moscow metro stations,” according to an FSB spokesperson.
The man, who was identified as a Russian citizen born in Central Asia, “offered armed resistance to Russian FSB officers when detained, and was eventually neutralized by return fire,” the spokesperson said.
The suspect had sworn allegiance to an unnamed terror group and had made plans to travel to Afghanistan to join the ranks of the organization after he carried out the attacks in Moscow, according to the FSB statement.
As part of his preparations for the attack, the suspect was said to have conducted surveillance and acquired bomb-making materials. During a raid on the suspect’s home, authorities seized firearms and means to produce improvised explosive devices.
The news of the thwarted assault comes exactly a year after the FSB thwarted an Islamic State attack on a synagogue in Moscow.
The ISIS cell, based in Kaluga, 93 miles southwest of the capital, planned to attack worshippers with firearms, the agency said. According to the FSB, the terrorists were members of the Afghan branch of ISIS.
Also in March 2024, an ISIS plot targeting Moscow’s Crocus City Hall music venue killed 145 people and wounded 551 others in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in Russia over the past several decades.