Jihad leader Doku Umarov said that Muslims should “use maximum force on the path of Allah to disrupt this Satanic dancing” — by which Patrick Swayze-evoking locution he referred to the Games. The Russians, he said, “plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims buried on the territory of our land on the Black Sea, and we Mujahedeen are obliged not to permit that “” using any methods allowed us by the almighty Allah.”
“Winter Olympics: Russia arrests five ‘terror suspects,'” from the BBC, January 11 (thanks to Lookmann):
Russian authorities say they have detained five members of a “banned international terrorist organisation” in the restive North Caucasus region.
The arrests were made in the town of Nalchik, some 300km (185 miles) east of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the host of next month’s Winter Olympics.
Russia earlier announced it was deploying more than 30,000 police and interior ministry troops to the region.
The main concern is the threat of attack by Islamist militants.
Security fears have been heightened after two suicide bomb attacks killed 34 people in the southern city of Volgograd on 29 and 30 December.
The bombings were similar to previous indiscriminate attacks by Islamist militants operating from the North Caucasus, where violent anti-Moscow separatism is rife.
No group has said it carried out the attacks, but Russia’s most wanted man, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov, has previously urged his fighters to target the Games.
‘Explosive device’The five suspects were in possession of “grenades, ammunition, and a homemade explosive device packed with shrapnel”, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said….
In recent years, a conflict between Russian forces and separatists in Chechnya has been the source of attacks by Islamists.
The violence has spread across the North Caucasus, including to mainly Muslim Ingushetia and Dagestan, killing hundreds of people, among them members of the government and security services.