ISIS prisoners killed after slashing guards, seizing hostages in Russian jail

Four knife-wielding prisoners claiming to be Islamic State group militants launched a deadly attack in a penal colony in southern Russia on Friday before being killed and their hostages released, officials said.

The attack left four people dead, while the four hostage-taking prisoners were “neutralized” by snipers, Russian officials said.

The attackers initially seized eight penal colony employees and four fellow inmates, according to Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service.

“The criminals inflicted stab wounds of varying severity on four employees, three of whom died. Another four who resisted were hospitalized, one of whom died in hospital,” it said in a statement.

All four convicts taken hostage were injured, the service added.

The incident unfolded in IK-19, a prison based in the town of Surovikino in the southern Volgograd region. It is designated a “harsh regime” penal colony with capacity to hold up to 1,241 male prisoners.

News sites with security connections published the names of up to four alleged attackers, identifying them as citizens of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. There was no official confirmation of these reports.

President Vladimir Putin said he has been informed about the “situation,” and will be meeting with his security officials to discuss it.

“The criminals were eliminated,” the region’s governor, Andrei Bocharov, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. “Unfortunately, there are people who died from the actions of criminals.”

Earlier, Bocharov said four injured employees of the colony had been hospitalized and the surrounding civilian population was in no danger.

“Every person on our territory is obliged to respect and comply with the laws of Russia,” he added. “We will not allow anyone to try to incite ethnic hatred.”

Russia, whose defense and security agencies are heavily focused on its war in Ukraine, has seen a recent upsurge in Islamist militant attacks.

In June, a bloody ISIS-linked prison uprising took place in the southern region of Rostov, where special forces shot dead six inmates who had taken hostages.

Later that month, at least 20 people were killed in shooting attacks in two cities in Dagestan, a mainly Muslim region of southern Russia.

In March, ISIS claimed responsibility for an attack in which gunmen raided the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, sprayed the audience with automatic weapons fire and set fire to the building, killing more than 140 people.

Source » msn