Russian security forces storm prison, kill Islamic State hostage takers
Inmates killed after allegedly taking captive two prison guards, who were said to be unharmed
Russian authorities said Sunday that they had brought a siege at a prison in the southern Rostov region to a swift end, killing the Islamic State hostage takers and freeing their two prison guard captives unharmed.
The prison service had earlier reported that the two guards had been taken hostage by an unspecified number of Islamic State detainees and that it had entered negotiations for their release.
But a short time later it issued a statement saying the siege had ended: “During a special operation…the criminals were liquidated and the employees who were taken hostage were released and were not injured.”
No further details were released in the immediate aftermath of the drama at Detention Center 1 in the Rostov region.
Intense automatic gunfire could be heard in footage published on Russian Telegram channels.
The hostage takers, some of them already convicted of terrorism offenses, had knocked out the bars of a window in their cell and entered a guard room where they took at least two prison officers hostage, Russian media said.
????????????☠️⚡ A video has appeared where terrorists took hostage employees of the Rostov pre-trial detention center.
The employees of pre-trial detention center-1, who were held hostage, have been released. The terrorists were shot dead. pic.twitter.com/K8Ilb96ErH
— War Watch (@WarWatchs) June 16, 2024
A police source told state news agency TASS that ISIS members who were due to appear in court on terrorism charges were among the hostage takers.
They were reported to be holed up in the prison courtyard, armed with a pocketknife, a baton, and an axe, the source said.
Before special forces stormed the detention center, one of the hostage takers was shown by the 112 Telegram channel brandishing a knife beside one of the bound guards.
The hostage taker wore a headband with the flag used by the Islamic State that bears an Arabic inscription.
The Interfax news agency said there were six hostage takers who demanded to be provided with a car and to be allowed to leave the prison in exchange for the release of the hostages.
An unverified video shared on social media, purporting to be from the aftermath of the scene, showed six dead men lying on the ground.
The incident comes nearly three months after gunmen killed at least 144 people when they opened fire inside a concert hall near Moscow in an attack claimed by the jihadist group. Hundreds more were injured in the March 22 attack at the Crocus City Hall, the deadliest on Russian soil in two decades.
More than 20 people have since been arrested, including the four suspected gunmen, all from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, an impoverished country on Afghanistan’s northern border.
Russia has been repeatedly targeted by attacks claimed by ISIS terrorists, though the jihadist group’s influence in the country remains limited.
Russian media reports speculated that the attackers at the Rostov detention center could be among those arrested in 2022 for allegedly planning an attack on the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia, a Muslim-majority Russian republic in the Caucasus.
Nearly 4,500 Russians, mainly from the Caucasus, traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight together with the Islamic State group, according to official figures.
In April, two armed men who authorities said were members of “an international terrorist organization” were shot dead by Russian forces near Nalchik in the Caucasus.
