2 suspected terrorists killed in southern Russia

Two armed perpetrators with ties to Islamic State who were planning terrorist attacks were killed in Russia's southern Stavropol Territory, the country's National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAC) said Saturday.

The two militants were killed in a shootout late Friday, after they opened fire in an attempt to escape a security check aimed at preventing activities of a so-called IS sleeper cell of bandits, when the police tried to stop their car on a rural road near a village in the Stavropol Region, according to a statement released by the NAC to Russian news agencies.

"The neutralized criminals were preliminarily identified: one of them was the head of the cell who had been trained in the IS camps and had arrived to Russia to carry out terror attacks, while the other was an active member of the cell," the statement read.

Information obtained by the Security agencies shows that these bandits intended to carry out a series of terrorist crimes, "including killing religious figures and other civilians," the statement said.

Apart from a machine gun, ammunition and components of an improvised explosive device were found at the scene of the armed clash, destructive weapons along with IS symbols were also found at the residence of one of the criminals, the statement added.

On Friday, two people were killed in a shooting attack on the Russian Federal Security Service's office in a Far Eastern city Khabarovsk, for which the IS claimed responsibility.

Source: Xinhua