ASTANA -- Kazakhstan on March 9 confirmed that two of its citizens were shot dead in Russia in what the Kremlin said was an antiterrorism operation that prevented an attack against a synagogue in the Moscow area.
“The media published reports about the killing of two Kazakh citizens by Russian law-enforcement agencies during an attempt to organize a terrorist attack in the Russian Federation,” the Kazakh Committee of National Security (KNB) said in a statement.
“We can confirm the Kazakh citizenship and the deaths in Russia,” it added.
The independent Astra news outlet reported that two men, aged 32 and 35, entered Russia on February 28 and allegedly intended to commit a terrorist act.
Astra identified them as adherents of the Wilayat Khorasan group, a branch of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which is recognized by Kazakhstan as a terrorist organization.
Russian state-run news agency TASS quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) on March 7 as saying it had shot dead two suspects of the Wilayat Khorasan terrorist group “whose members were planning to commit a terrorist act against one of the Jewish religious institutions in Moscow."
"During an operation to detain them, the terrorists put up armed resistance to Russian FSB staff and as a result were neutralized by return fire," the FSB said.
The FSB said the Wilayat Khorasan group is an offshoot of Islamic State from that is mostly active in Afghanistan.
The FSB, which did not identify the nationality of the suspects, said the shootings took place in the viillage Koryakovo in the Kaluga region, about 120 kilometers southwest of Moscow.
Russian media identified the two suspects as Kazakh nationals and said they had arrived in Russia in February.
The KNB said it was working “closely” with the FSB to investigation the matter.
The incident came as the U.S. Embassy, along with those of other nations, on March 7 advised citizens to avoid large groupings in Moscow, warning that "extremists" were planning an operation within the next 48 hours and ahead of Russia's March 15-17 presidential election.