The Russian prison service said on Sunday that it had released unharmed the two guards taken hostage by members of the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS) in a prison in the Rostov region, in southern Russia.
“During a special operation (…) the criminals were liquidated and the employees who were taken hostage were released and were not injured,” the prison services said in a statement.
A little earlier, “defendants detained in one of the cells of detention center number 1 (…) for the Rostov region took two prison officers hostage”, indicated the prison services in a press release. According to a source within the police interviewed by the state agency TASS, members of ISIS who were to appear in court on charges of “terrorism” were among the hostage-takers.
Attack in Moscow: why has Russia become a target of Islamist terrorism?
Russia has been targeted on multiple occasions by attacks and attacks claimed by the jihadist organization. On March 22, gunmen opened fire in a concert hall near Moscow, killing at least 144 people and injuring hundreds. It was the deadliest attack on Russian soil since 2004. More than 20 people have since been arrested, including the four suspected attackers, all from Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia neighboring the Afghanistan. The attack was quickly claimed by the Islamic State organization.
