IS hostage-taker killed as Russian prison siege ends: authorities

But a short time later, a statement was issued saying that the siege was over: “As part of a special operation … the criminals were liquidated and the employees taken hostage were released and remained unharmed.”

No further details were released immediately after the drama at Internment Camp 1 in the Rostov region.

A police source told the state news agency TASS that among the hostage-takers were IS members who were due to appear in court on terrorism charges.

They were reportedly barricaded in the prison yard and were armed with a pocket knife, a baton and an axe, the source said.

The Interfax news agency reported that six of the hostage takers were hostages who had demanded the provision of a car and permission to leave the prison in exchange for the hostages’ release.

The incident came nearly three months after gunmen opened fire at a concert hall near Moscow, killing at least 144 people in an attack claimed by the jihadist group.

Hundreds more were injured in the attack on Crocus City Hall on March 22, the deadliest on Russian soil in two decades.

More than 20 people have now been arrested, including the four suspected shooters. They all come from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, an impoverished country on Afghanistan’s northern border.

Russia has repeatedly been the target of attacks claimed by IS fighters. However, the jihadist group’s influence in the country remains limited.

Russian media reports have speculated that the attackers in the Rostov pre-trial detention center could be among those arrested in 2022 for allegedly planning an attack on the Supreme Court of Karachay-Cherkessia, a predominantly Muslim Russian republic in the Caucasus.

According to official figures, almost 4,500 Russians, mainly from the Caucasus, traveled to Iraq and Syria to fight on the side of the terrorist militia “Islamic State”.

In April, two gunmen who authorities said were members of an “international terrorist organization” were shot dead by Russian forces near Nalchik in the Caucasus.

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