Russian Officials Claim to Have Stopped Islamic State Terror Attack in Moscow
Russian officials announced this week that they have successfully stopped a planned terror attack of their public transport system in the nation's capitol by the Islamic State terrorist group.
Moscow's Federal Security Service said in a statement that nearly one dozen individuals had been arrested in connection with the planned terror plot that targeted Moscow's public transportation system.
Authorities also say that several pounds of explosives were found at the scene of the suspects' arrest.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has received criticism for carrying out airstrikes on Syria, with critics arguing that Putin is in reality bombing the opposition to ally Bashar al-Assad, rather than actually targeting Islamic State groups.
Putin has defended his aid to al-Assad, saying in a statement with Russian state television: "If we just stood by and let Syria get gobbled up, thousands of people running around there now with Kalashnikovs would end up on our territory, and so we are helping President Assad fight this threat before it reaches our borders."
"We must take pre-emptive action," he said. "Of course, there are risks, but let me say that these risks existed anyway, even before we began our operations in Syria."
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out against Putin's strategy in a recent interview with "60 Minutes," saying: "Syria has been a difficult problem for the entire world community and, obviously, most importantly, for the people of Syria themselves that have been devastated by this civil war, caught between a brutal dictator who drops barrel bombs on his own population, and thinks that him clinging to power is more important than the fate of his country."
