MOSCOW. May 29 (Interfax) - Seven militants killed in Ingushetia last Saturday were preparing a suicide bomber attack during the Republic Day celebrations, the Federal Security Service public relations center said.
"Special purpose units of the Federal Security Service in collaboration with the Interior Ministry and Interior Ministry Forces servicemen held an operation in the village of Sagopshi in the Malgobek district on May 24. Seven members of a gang involved in over 20 terrorist crimes were killed," says the center report seen by Interfax on Thursday.
Artur Gatagazhev a.k.a. Abdullah has been tentatively identified. He headed militant groups in Ingushetia since June 2013 on the orders from late Caucasus Emirate international terrorist organization leader Umarov, the Federal Security Service reported.
"There is information that the Gatagazhev gang was planning a suicide bomber attack during the Ingushetia Republic Day in June 2014," it said.
The report blamed the Gatagazhev gang for the murders of several civil servants, Federal Security Service officers and police, including Ingush Security Council Secretary Ahmed Kotiyev in September 2013, and suicide bombings at the burial of a police officer in Sagopshi in August 2012, when eight people died and another 15 were wounded.