ASTANA, August 14. /TASS/. Kazakhstan has extended to January 15, 2017 the moderate-level ("yellow") terrorist alert regime, the country’s Anti-Terror Center said in a statement on Sunday.
"The Anti-Terror Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan notifies about extension of the moderate (‘yellow’) level of security alert in the territory of the country to January 15, 2017 inclusive," the statement reads.
On June 5, a group of Salafi followers carried out attacks at weapon shops and the National Guard’s military unit in Aktobe. Eight people died in the attack, including three servicemen, and dozens more were injured. Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee later reported that all attackers were neutralized and detained. According to the committee, nine people were detained and 18 others liquidated over the course of the special operation. Twenty-three weapons units stolen during the attacks were also seized.
Following the terrorist attack, Kazakhstan announced a moderate-level terrorist threat regime for the term of 40 days. On July 15, the regime was extended for another 30 days.
On July 18, five people died and another nine were wounded in an armed attack at the Almaty Interior Ministry and National Security Committee departments, Kalmukhanbet Kasymov, Kazakhstan’s minister of internal affairs, told journalists. "Three policemen, one border guard and one civilian died. A border guard put up resistance; disobeyed the assailants and was wounded," Kasymov, who arrived in Almaty on order from Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said.
The red terror alert was declared in the city, security forces conducted an operation to arrest the persons involved in the crime. The attacker was a 27-year-old man twice convicted for robbery with violence and illegal acquisition and possession of firearms. He was born in the Kyzylorda region. According to the interior minister, nine people, including six policemen and the assailant himself, were taken to hospital. Police were questioning the attacker right in a hospital ward.
All the facilities in Almaty where a terrorist attack occurred are now operating normally, spokesperson for the Almaty Department of Internal Affairs Saltanat Azimbek told TASS next day. "The situation in the city is stable, there is no threat to the citizens’ lives. The situation is fully controlled by the law enforcement agencies. All facilities are operating normally," she said. According to Azimbek, law enforcement officers who were put on a beefed-up security regime, later on were transferred to "duty as usual.".