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Russian security services are searching for four female suspects whom they believe may be planning a terror attack at the Sochi Winter Olympics, one of whom may already be in Sochi. Ruzanna "Salima" Ibragimova is the 22 year-old widow of an Islamist militant from the Caucasus region who has been described as a "black widow."
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Russian police distributed fliers bearing her name and photo to area hotels. The flier depicts a four-inch scar on her left cheek and notes that she walks with a limp in her right leg and is unable to bend her left arm at the elbow. A flier obtained by CNN and dated January 15 states that Ibragimova may be planning "a terrorist act within the 2014 Olympic region."
Three other women are being sought on suspicion of planning to attack the Olympic torch relay in Rostov-on-Don between Tuesday and Thursday as the torch makes its way to Sochi.
Two of the women, Zaira Alieva, 26, and Jhannet Tsakhaeva, 34, are from Dagestan. The third woman, Oskana Aslanova, 26, is from Turkmenistan. Russian authorities are circulating fliers with photos of the three women that states they may be dressed in western clothing so as to "infiltrate into places with mass gatherings without hindrances."
The term "black widow" refers to female terrorists seeking to avenge the deaths of their husbands.
In addition to the four suspected "black widows," Russian security services are also searching for two men, Ruslan Saufutdinov, 21, and Murad Musaev, 25, whom they suspect are planning to launch attacks in southern Russia.
On Sunday, a video threatening an attack against the Olympics was posted to a well-known jihadi website forum. In July 2013, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarova publicly threatened to attack the Winter Olympics via a video posted on-line.
The U.S. Department of State issued a travel warning for Americans traveling to Sochi for the Olympics that highlighted the limited medical care infrastructure and threat of terrorism as two major concerns.
[CNN] [NBC News]
