A still image from a video footage shows Interior Ministry officers block a street near a regional office of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which was attacked by a gunman, in Khabarovsk, Russia, April 21, 2017. REUTERS/Reuters TV

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Friday that a gunman had burst into one of its regional offices in the far east of the country and opened fire, killing one of its employees and a visitor.

The region where the incident happened is close to China. The FSB, the successor organization to the Soviet KGB, said the attacker had been killed and that another person had been injured in the incident.

“An unknown person entered the reception of the FSB’s Khabarovsk regional branch and started shooting at people inside,” the FSB said in a statement.

The Site Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based monitoring service, said that Islamic State had claimed responsibility for the attack. It said that the claim of responsibility had been made through the militant group’s Amaq news agency.

That contradicted earlier media reports, which said the FSB believed the gunman was a nationalist. The TASS news agency cited an unnamed FSB official as saying that the gunman was a local resident and born in 1999.

The visitor who was killed and the one who was injured were from former Soviet states outside Russia, according to the security service.

Russia was this month shaken by a suicide bombing of the St Petersburg metro, which killed 16 people. The suspected suicide bomber and his alleged accomplices were from Central Asia.

The man Russian police believe was the suicide bomber had developed an interest in Islam and soon after traveled to Turkey, two people who knew him told Reuters.</s>The armed man was named by some sources as Anton Konev. Picture: The Siberian Times

The armed man named by some sources as Anton Konev killed an instructor at a local rifle club before the shooting at the foyer of the FSB regional branch in the Russian Far East city.

One FSB staffer died along with a visitor from an ex-Soviet republic.

Islamic terrorist grouping IS claimed responsibility for the incident but this is strongly doubted by Russian counterintelligence.

The gunman was 'a native of Khabarovsk territory born in 1999 and there is the evidence of his affiliation with a neo-Nazi grouping', said an FSB spokesman.

The attacker did not have explosives on him.

He stole a Saiga carbine and two handguns as he killed the rifle club instructor.



A multiple murder investigation has been opened. Pictures: Typical Khabarovsk

A multiple murder investigation has been opened and Investigative Committee (IC) chairman Alexander Bastrykin dispatched a team of 'highly expert investigators and detectives' to Khabarovsk to probe the crime.

IC spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said: "Investigators do not have any evidence that would confirm the attacker's links to an international terrorist organisation, which ostensibly claimed responsibility for the crime.'

Evidence so far points to 'the crime having been committed by an advocate of neo-Nazi outlooks, who espoused hatred towards people of other ethnic identities'.

He is believed to have been a member of a far-right movement called Shtolts, reported RBC citing FSB sources.

'They consider themselves 'fighters for morality'. They also oppose illegal migration,' said the source.

The group has around 15 members aged 17 to 20.



The man opened fire at the FSB office without clearing security, before he was shot. Pictures: The Siberian Times, Typical Khabarovsk

He opened fire at the FSB office without clearing security, before he was shot dead.

'The attacker was neutralized,' said the FSB.

One person was wounded in the incident, also from an ex-Soviet state.

The so-called Islamic State 'news outlet' Amaq issued a brief claim in Arabic saying "IS fighter attacked a Russian Federal Intelligence office in Khabarovsk killing three of them [personnel] and wounding others."

Security is high across Russia after 15 passengers died in a suicide bombing of the St Petersburg metro.

The suspected suicide bomber and his alleged accomplices were from Central Asia.

Farewell message in Russian sent by Anton Konev. Pictures: The Siberian Times, Typical Khabarovsk



</s>‘Neo-Nazi’ kills two at FSB office in eastern Russia, official says

A still image from a video footage shows Interior Ministry officers block a street near a regional office of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), which was attacked by a gunman, in Khabarovsk April 21, 2017. — Reuters picMOSCOW, April 21 — A gunman with alleged links to a neo-Nazi group today shot dead an employee of Russia’s FSB security service and a civilian at the agency’s office in a far eastern city, officials said.

The FSB said the attacker — named as local resident A.V. Konev, born in 1999 — opened fire immediately after entering the reception of an FSB building in the city of Khabarovsk before he was himself shot dead.

“There is information about his belonging to a neo-Nazi group,” the FSB said in a statement, without giving any more details.

Earlier, Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency said an assailant killed an “FSB employee” and a “visitor” after bursting into the reception area at 17.02 (0702 GMT/3.02pm Malaysian time) today.

One other visitor was reported injured in the attack.

Deadly attacks on Russian law enforcement officials are rare outside the country’s volatile North Caucasus region.

The country has seen significant support for far-right groups that have sparked brutal confrontations with immigrants from the former Soviet region.

Despite stoking nationalist sentiment since the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the authorities under President Vladimir Putin have also cracked down on neo-Nazi extremists.

The country has been on heightened alert since an alleged suicide bomb attack on the metro in the second city of Saint Petersburg on April 3 left 15 people dead. — AFP</s>The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) says a teenage gunman has killed two people at its regional headquarters in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk.

The FSB said the assailant entered the building and opened fire at people in the reception area before going through security control in the April 21 attack, Russian news agencies reported.

It said the attacker fatally shot an FSB officer and a visitor and also wounded another visitor before being killed by FSB personnel.

The two visitors were from a former Soviet republic other than Russia, the FSB said.

The FSB said the attacker was a local who was born in 1999 and might have had links to neo-Nazi activities. It gave his last name, Konev, and the initials A.V.

The FSB is Russia's main domestic security and intelligence agency.

Based on reporting by Republic, TASS, and Interfax</s>Russia's Federal Security Service said on Friday that a gunman had burst into one of its regional offices in the far east of the country and opened fire, killing one of its employees and a visitor.

The incident happened at an FSB office in the Khabarovsk region, which is close to China, and another visitor was injured in the attack. The FSB, the successor organization to the Soviet KGB, said the attacker had been killed.

"An unknown person entered the reception of the FSB's Khabarovsk regional branch and started shooting at people inside," the FSB said in a statement.

The FSB said the gunman was a local resident, born in 1999, who belonged to an unnamed nationalist group, the TASS news agency reported, citing an FSB official.

The visitor who was killed and the one who was injured were from former Soviet states outside Russia, according to the security service.

Russia was this month shaken by a suicide bombing of the St Petersburg metro, which killed 16 people. The suspected suicide bomber and his alleged accomplices were from Central Asia, something rights group feared might provoke a backlash.</s>Russia's Federal Security Service said on Friday that a gunman had burst into one of its regional offices in the far east of the country and opened fire, killing one of its employees and a visitor. The incident happened at an FSB office in the Khabarovsk region, which is close to China, and another visitor was injured in the attack.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Reuters.</s>These are the first pictures of a teenage neo-Nazi gunman who killed three people in an armed attack at a Russian intelligence agency.

Anton Konev, 18, stormed a FSB counterintelligence office - the main successor of the KGB - in the Far East Siberian city of Khabarovsk.

He killed an FSB employee and a visitor from a former Soviet state at the reception before police shot him dead.

The teenager was a member of a far-right group and encouraged 'hatred towards people of other ethnic identities,' sources claimed.

Earlier, he had gunned down an instructor at a local rifle club, and stolen two guns and a sawn-off shotgun.

Russian sources claimed he had a background as a neo-Nazi in the region where he staged his attack - despite Islamic State claiming responsibility for the attack.

He 'espoused hatred towards people of other ethnic identities', said one source.

The gunman was 'a native of Khabarovsk territory born in 1999 and there is the evidence of his affiliation with a neo-Nazi grouping', said an FSB spokesman.

The attacker did not have explosives on him.

He stole a Saiga carbine and two handguns as he killed the rifle club instructor, reported The Siberian Times.

A multiple murder investigation has been opened and Russian Investigative Committee (IC) chairman Alexander Bastrykin dispatched a team of 'highly expert investigators and detectives' to Khabarovsk to probe the crime.

The IC is responsible for investigating serious crime in Russia.

A spokeswoman also refuted claims that the attack was linked to ISIS.

'Investigators do not have any evidence that would confirm the attacker's links to an international terrorist organisation, which ostensibly claimed responsibility for the crime,' spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

Evidence so far points to 'the crime having been committed by an advocate of neo-Nazi outlooks, who espoused hatred towards people of other ethnic identities'.

He is believed to have been a member of a far-right movement called Shtolts, reported RBC news agency, citing FSB sources.

'They consider themselves 'fighters for morality'. They also oppose illegal migration,' said the source.

The group has around 15 members aged 17 to 20.

The so-called Islamic State 'news outlet' Amaq issued a brief claim in Arabic saying 'IS fighter attacked a Russian Federal Intelligence office in Khabarovsk killing three of them [personnel] and wounding others.'

Security is high across Russia after 15 passengers died in a suicide bombing of the St Petersburg metro.

The suspected suicide bomber and his alleged accomplices were from Central Asia.</s>MOSCOW, April 22 (Reuters) - Russian authorities said on Saturday security forces had killed two armed militants who had been trained by Islamic State and were planning a series of "terrorist crimes", Russian news agencies reported.

The National Anti-Terror Committee said the two men had been killed in the Stavropol region of Southern Russia after a shoot out with security forces who had tried to stop their car.

"The bandits have been preliminarily identified: one was the leader of a cell, trained in Islamic State camps and returned to Russia to carry out terrorist acts. The other was an active cell member," Interfax news agency quoted the committee as saying.

Russia has been on heightened alert after a suicide bomber killed 16 people in an attack on the St Petersburg metro earlier this month.

Russia's Federal Security Service said on Friday a gunman had burst into one of its regional offices in the far east of the country and opened fire, killing one of its employees and a visitor.

The Site Intelligence Group, a U.S.-based monitoring service, said Islamic State claimed responsibility for that attack. (Reporting by Jack Stubbs; Editing by Louise Ireland)</s>WASHINGTON: The Islamic State jihadist group has claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on Friday on an office of Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency, the FSB, in the country’s far east, a US-based monitoring group said. Amaq News Agency, an IS propaganda arm, made the claim in a brief report in Arabic distributed on the social media application Telegram that cited a “security source.” According to the text translated into English by the SITE monitoring group, the source said an IS “fighter” attacked an FSB office in Khabarovsk, killing three people and wounding others. Russian officials say two people were killed in the incident—an FSB employee and a civilian. One other person was reported wounded. The assailant was shot dead, the FSB said, adding: “There is information about his belonging to a neo-Nazi group.” The Amaq report came one day after the Islamic State group claimed an attack in Paris that left a policeman dead and two other officers wounded.</s>An intelligence official was killed on Friday when a gunman opened fire in an office branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) office. A visitor to the facility was also slain in the bloody incident, which occurred in Khabarovsk, a city in the far-east of the Russia near the border with China. Another visitor was injured. A spokesperson for FSB, which is seen as the successor to the infamous Soviet KGB, confirmed the news.

They said: “An unknown person entered the reception of the FSB's Khabarovsk regional branch and started shooting at people inside.” The attacker was killed at the scene, with ISIS claiming him as one of their deranged fighters.

The Site Intelligence Group, a US-based monitoring service, said the death cult had claimed responsibility for the attack through their Amaq news agency. That contradicted earlier media reports, which said the FSB believed the gunman was a far-right nationalist.

One Russian news agency had quoted a FSB spokesman as saying: ”Some information points to his being a member of a neo-Nazi group.” The visitor who was killed and the one who was injured were from former Soviet states outside Russia, according to the security service.

A police investigation has been launched and evidence is being gathered at the crime scene. Earlier this month Russia was shaken by a suicide bombing of the St Petersburg metro, which killed 16 people.
Two people are killed in an attack in a Federal Security Service office in the Russian city of Khabarovsk. The gunman is also killed. The US-Israeli SITE Intelligence Group says Amaq News Agency claims the attack for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Russian Federal Security Service says the native 18-year-old perpetrator was a known member of a neo-nazi group.