Foiled would-be Moscow bomber Yulay Davletbayev was arrested in an anti-terrorism raid in the suburbs of Moscow, by FSB security agents today. His organization which had in the last decade fought in Afghanistan against NATO forces was plotting to attack civilian targets in Moscow, such as public subways and bus depots.
Written by Chris White
His arrest follows a May 20th FSB raid in Moscow killing two of his accomplices and capturing one more, along with half-built suicide vests, detonators, explosives and metal shrapnel.
All of the militants thus far apprehended have turned out to be Russian citizens however, they were all acting on behalf of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement otherwise known as the Turkestan Islamic Party. – East Turkestan is an autonomous ethnic province in Western China called ‘Xinjiang’ in Chinese.
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement aims to establish a break-away state separate from the People’s Republic of China which now rules the province, with an Islamic fundamentalist government.
The movement has in the past mounted operations both against US targets in Afghanistan and Central Asia and Chinese targets on its own home turf.
Today Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said: “This job took considerable effort and cooperation from troops, national bodies and local authorities. Several regions of the Russian Federation conducted search and screening operations. This allowed [for the] identifying [of] the location where the criminal was hiding.”
The committee then went on in detail to describe how the organization had trained extensively in Afghanistan and Pakistan by participating in combat operations against NATO forces, deployed as part of the UN’s ISAF (International Security Assistance Forces).
The intentions of the cell were to attack the Russian capital during Russian VE Day celebrations on May 9th of this year, held in commemoration of the Soviet Union’s military victory over the Third Reich in the last World War.
The committee explained how Davletbayev had got a job as a cab driver in order familiarize himself with the layout of the capital so that he could pick out high valued targets for covert assault during the victory celebrations:
“While navigating around the city in his taxi, he was selecting places most vulnerable for a terrorist attack, which would suffer most damage and cause greatest loss of life.” – The committee said.
However, the cell was exposed after an informant and ex-member Robert Amerkhanov decided to cooperate with Russian intelligence services just as the cell fell far behind schedule.
Davletbayev who is in his early 40’s is also wanted in connection with other offenses, including some in connection to the bombing of a natural gas pipeline.
The incident comes as a cause of concern for Moscow’s authorities having already experienced a number of terrorist attacks in recent years, including the January 2011 attack at Domodedovo International Airport which killed 36 people, wounding 180 and the March 2010 attack which killed 41 people in Moscow’s subway system, wounding around 100.
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