Four Islamic State-affiliated militants killed in Dagestan, Russia says

By Guy Faulconbridge and Lidia Kelly

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian counter-terrorism forces killed four militants affiliated with the Islamic State jihadi group who were plotting an attack in the mainly Muslim region of Dagestan, Russian security services said on Wednesday.

Intelligence services have been alarmed by an upswing in militant Islamist activity and plots in Russia and Central Asia from where thousands travelled to join jihadi groups fighting in the Syrian civil war.

Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the 2024 Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow which left at least 145 people dead, and there have been a number of Islamic State-linked plots foiled in the Muslim regions of southern Russia and in the former Soviet republic of Central Asia.

Russian security services said the militants in Dagestan had been plotting to attack a regional branch of the interior ministry.

"Grenade launchers, improvised explosive devices, grenades, machine guns, a pistol and ammunition for them were found at the site of the clash and in a nearby cache," said Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee.

"According to available evidence, the gang's activities were coordinated by members of the Islamic State, an international terrorist organization banned in Russia."

The incident in Dagestan came just days after Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) it had shot dead a man who was planning attacks on the Moscow metro and a Jewish religious institution in the Moscow region.

Both Russia and the United States claimed they had defeated Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in 2017 and 2019, though the group splintered and ISIS-Khorasan has alarmed governments across Europe and the Middle East.

ISIS-Khorasan takes its name from an old Persian term for the region, that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, as well as areas of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow)