What we know about foiled terror plot targeting law enforcement officers in Pyatigorsk
The two detainees confessed that they had acted on instructions from agents of Ukrainian special services
MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) prevented a double attack against law enforcement officers in Pyatigorsk in Russia’s North Caucasus jointly with the Investigative Committee, according to the FSB.
TASS has compiled key details about the terror plot.
Terror plot
- The FSB in collaboration with the Investigative Committee has prevented a double terrorist attack targeting Russian law enforcement officers in the Stavropol Region, according to the FSB.
- First, a girl born in 2006 was detained as she neared the building of a law enforcement agency in Pyatigorsk. An improvised explosive device equivalent to about 2 kg of TNT was found in her backpack, the FSB said.
- After that, security measures were enhanced and a search for her potential accomplices was launched.
- As a result, a female Russian national born in 1979 who was planning to bring a similar explosive device to the site of the first planned attack by the time investigators would have arrived on instructions from Ukrainian curators was detained nearby.
- FSB officers neutralized both bombs.
- No one among law enforcement officers or civilians was injured, the FSB added.
- The attackers attempted to inflict as many casualties among law enforcement officers as possible.
Confession
- The two detainees confessed that they had acted on instructions from agents of Ukrainian special services without realizing that they would be used as suicide bombers, the FSB said.
- The two women learned that there were explosive devices in their backpacks only upon detention; a Ukrainian curator assigned one of them with carrying out a terrorist attack on her birthday, a video released by the FSB showed.
- One of them said she had been looking for a part-time job on the internet. Earlier this month, a man contacted her with a well-paid job offer.
- The woman said the curator had instructed her to deliver a backpack to a law enforcement facility in Pyatigorsk.
- The other woman, too, contacted a person with a marked Ukrainian accent on the internet who offered her a high-paying job.
- According to her, a Ukrainian curator too directed her to deliver a bag to the premises of a law enforcement facility in Pyatigorsk.
Probe
- The Investigative Committee’s department in the Stavropol Region has opened three criminal cases.
- The two women have been taken into custody.