Russia Says It Foiled Sochi Olympics Terror Plot - East Idaho News
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Russia Says It Foiled Sochi Olympics Terror Plot

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TR007482?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1336656700451Ryan McVay/Digital Vision/Thinkstock(MOSCOW) — Russian authorities said on Thursday they have foiled a terror plot targeting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

Ten weapons caches, which included anti-aircraft missiles capable of taking down low-flying planes, were uncovered in Abkhazia, one of the breakaway regions that Russia defended in a brief war with Georgia in 2008, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

The report quotes a spokesman for the Russian National Anti-Terrorist Committee as saying that the Federal Security Service (the FSB, which replaced the KGB), has determined that terrorists planned to move the weapons to Sochi in the next two years with the intention of staging an attack during the Olympic games on the Black Sea coast.

Interfax reported that the FSB, in cooperation with Abkhazia’s State Security Service, raided a series of sites last week as part of an investigation into the Abkhaz Jamaat, which the report says is part of a Chechen terror group that has declared an independent Islamist state called the Caucasus Emirate.

The United States announced last year a $5 million reward for information leading to Doku Umarov, the leader of the Caucasus Emirate.

The weapons stashes reportedly included three Igla and Strela model portable air missile defense systems, two anti-tank missile systems, a mine launcher with 36 shells, a flame gun, 29 grenade launchers, 12 improvised explosive devices, 15 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, 655 shells for a grenade launcher, 39 grenades, a sniper rifle, two automatic weapons, 15 kilograms of TNT, and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition.  Authorities also found topographic maps of the area.

Interfax quotes a Russian official pointing the finger at Georgia, saying the weapons entered from there.  It says that three people were detained during the operation.

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