According to information made public by the Russian state-run media, the country’s special forces stormed a detention center in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don on Sunday, freeing two prison guards and killing six inmates linked to the Islamic State militant group who had taken the guards hostage, according to Russian media reports.
State media revealed that some of the men involved in the hostage-taking had been convicted of terrorism offenses and were accused of affiliation with the Islamic State, the group that claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March.
The six hostage-takers, one of whom was seen wearing a headband bearing the flag used by the Islamic State with an Arabic inscription, managed to knock out window bars and descend several floors using a rope before taking the guards hostage with a knife and a fire axe.
Video footage published by the 112 Telegram channel showed one of the hostage-takers brandishing a knife beside a bound guard. During negotiations with the authorities, the inmates demanded free passage out of the prison.
However, Russian special forces decided to intervene and storm the prison. Intense automatic gunfire could be heard in footage shared on Russian Telegram channels. The 112 Telegram channel later published a video showing the six dead men lying in pools of blood.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia confirmed the incident in a statement, saying, “The criminals were eliminated. The employees who were being held hostage were released. They are uninjured.”
Ambulances were seen entering the complex following the operation.
The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim militant group, was defeated in Iraq and Syria by a combination of U.S.-led forces, Kurdish fighters, and Russian, Iranian, and Syrian soldiers. However, the group has since splintered into various regional factions that have claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks worldwide.
Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), named after an ancient term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan, claimed responsibility for the March attack on the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, which resulted in the deaths of 145 people.
According to Russian media reports, the hostage-takers were from Russia’s southern republic of Ingushetia, and three of them had been detained in 2022 for planning an attack on a court in another Russian republic, Karachay-Cherkessia.
The incident at the Rostov-on-Don detention center highlights the ongoing threat posed by Islamic State-affiliated groups, even after the militant organization’s defeat in its former strongholds in the Middle East.
