What we know about foiled terror plot targeting law enforcement officers in Pyatigorsk

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.

- 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.