WATCH FSB commandos descend on Islamist cells plotting COUP in Russia's largest cities

From Moscow to Tatarstan and Siberia, a shady Islamist network recruited followers and stored supplies in a bid to establish a caliphate – until the FSB got them in their crosshairs. The anti-terrorism raids were caught on film.

The FSB’s elite counter-terrorism teams breached flats across Moscow, Tatarstan and the Tyumen region of Siberia, targeting members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a radical Islamist organization designated as terrorists in Russia.

A video released by the security agency shows heavily armed officers gaining entry through the doors and ordering the suspects onto the ground.

No shots were fired during the rapid raids, in which nine Hizb ut-Tahrir members, including two ringleaders, were arrested.

The Islamists were conspiring against the Russian government, readying a “violent coup,” the FSB said. The operatives retrieved a trove of propaganda leaflets and brochures calling for the establishment of a caliphate.

Russian security officials have long warned about the re-emergence of the jihadist underground, fueled by members of the shrinking Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) trying to make their way into Russia and former Soviet countries.

Earlier this year, IS personnel tasked by “foreign emissaries” to recruit more terrorists locally were detained outside Moscow.

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