On Sunday, Russian special forces successfully rescued two prison guards held hostage at a detention center in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, and simultaneously eliminated six prisoners connected to the extremist organization Islamic State (ISIS). The prisoners had earlier seized the two guards as hostages.
According to reports from Reuters citing Russian officials and media, among the six male prisoners who were shot dead, some had been convicted of terrorism-related crimes and accused of ties to ISIS. The extremist group had claimed responsibility for a deadly attack at a music hall on the outskirts of Moscow back in March.
The six hostage takers broke the window bars, climbed down several floors using ropes, and then seized the hostages with knives and a fire ax. One of them wore a headscarf with the ISIS flag and Arabic script.
A video released on the major Russian-language channel “112 Channel Russia Telegram” on the social media platform Telegram depicted a man waving a knife next to a bound prison guard at the detention center in Rostov-on-Don. During negotiations with authorities, the prisoner-hijackers demanded their release.
Despite the demands, Russian special forces made the decision to storm the prison. Intense gunfire can be heard in the video released by “112 Channel Russia Telegram,” with the footage showing the six prisoners lying in pools of blood.
The Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia announced in a statement that the “criminals have been eliminated” and that authorities took “special action” to rescue the hostages.
“The employees who were held hostage have been freed. They are unharmed,” the agency stated.
Witnesses saw ambulances entering the detention center following the operation.
Islamic State is a Sunni Muslim extremist organization that was defeated in Iraq and Syria a few years ago by U.S.-led forces, Kurdish forces, as well as Russian, Iranian, and Syrian forces. However, it later splintered into various regional factions and has carried out numerous deadly attacks worldwide.
In March this year, a major terrorist attack occurred at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, resulting in the deaths of 145 people. The Islamic State Khorasan branch claimed responsibility for the attack. This extremist group, established at the end of 2014 as a branch of ISIS in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has been referred to as ISIS-K or IS-K.
The prisoners who hijacked the guards on Sunday hail from the Republic of Ingushetia in southern Russia. Three of them had been detained in 2022 for planning an attack on a court in the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia.