ISIS In Russia: 7 Members Of Islamic State Group Arrested For Plans To Attack Moscow, St. Petersburg And Sverdlovsk Region

Seven members of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, were detained in central Russian city of Yekaterinburg, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday. The members, who were arrested Sunday, had planned to travel to Syria after carrying out attacks in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk region, where Yekaterinburg is located.

The detained ISIS members were of Russian and Central Asian ethnicities, and had planned to attack the areas using “self-made explosive” devices, Tass news agency reported citing the FSB. Officials found a laboratory, where the militants were planning to make explosives. Authorities also recovered improvised explosive device (IED) components, electric detonators, hand grenades, handguns and extremist reading materials, RT.com reported.

"The group was led by a member of the above mentioned terrorist group [ISIS] who arrived from Turkey’s territory," the FSB said.

Russia began air campaign against the Sunni militant group last September. However, Moscow stepped up the airstrikes after ISIS claimed to have brought down a Russian passenger plane carrying 224 people in October 2015 in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula region.