Thought Russia claimed to have captured five assassins. Were these ‘extras’ ?
Russian's broke up ISIS cells in the past month that were planing on attacking Moscow.
That stance came despite Russian authorities having reported several ISIS-related incidents within the past month.
The state-run RIA Novosti reported on March 3 that six ISIS members were killed in a counter-terrorist operation in the Ingush Karabulak; on March 7, it said security services had uncovered and “neutralized” a cell of the banned organization Vilayat Khorasan in the Kaluga region, whose members were planning an attack on a synagogue in Moscow; and on March 20, it said the commander of an ISIS combat group had been detained.
Two sources familiar with the American information said that since November there had been a steady stream of intelligence that ISIS-K – an affiliate of ISIS that is active in Afghanistan and the surrounding region – was determined to attack Russia.
Moscow has intervened tellingly in Syria’s civil war, to the support of President Bashar al-Assad and against ISIS.
ISIS-K “sees Russia as being complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims,” Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said, as quoted by Reuters.
He added that the group also counts as members a number of Central Asian militants, who hold their own grievances against Moscow.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/23/europe/us-had-warned-russia-isis-was-determined-to-attack-intl-hnk/index.html