Russian police on Wednesday arrested 15 heavily armed Islamic extremists in Moscow who allegedly belong to a banned offshoot of Al-Qaeda and were preparing suicide attacks.The Interior Ministry said members of Takfir wal-Hijra — a group formed in Egypt in the late 1960's and outlawed in Russia in 2010 — had been discovered with weapons, suicide belts and extremist literature.
Russian television footage showed riot police burst into a high-rise apartment in a pre-dawn raid and throw several men face down onto the floor. Police were shown opening plastic bags holding grenades and pistols and a heavy black object identified as an explosive belt. The Ministry said the group had been funding its activities by “conducting general crime” in the Moscow region.