As many as four women with ties to terrorists may be plotting acts against the Olympics, according to Russian sources.
The women–called “black widows” because they often want to avenge the deaths of their husbands–may be in the area of Sochi, where the Olympic games are set to kick off on February 7. Russian security officers have distributed “Wanted” posters for at least one woman, Ruzana Ibragimova, saying she may be used by two men who have claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings that hit Volgograd in December and killed 34 people.
“That which we will do, that which we have done, is only a little example, a little step,” one the men, from the Islamist organization Anars Al Sunna, said in a video which was released over the weekend.
“We’ll have a surprise package for you,” the other man said. “And those tourists that will come to you, for them, too, we have a surprise.”
The games have been a major area of concern for months, since Chechen rebel Doku Umarov swore to bring violence to Sochi.
“They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims, buried on the territory of our land on the Black Sea,” he said.
While officials have done everything they can to make the games safe–including added beefed up security such as bomb-sniffing dogs, drones which will patrol the Olympic facilities, boats to patrol the coast, and troops to keep watch in the mountains around the area–authorities say these “black widows” can be harder to spot in a large crowd because, as women, they can easily change their appearance with makeup and don’t particularly look like Islamic militants.
“There’s every belief they’ll make it secure and do whatever it takes to do that,” said an American senior law enforcement official. “But it is a large country, and these groups can get a lot of bang for their buck if they are able to do something in the country, wherever it is, during the Olympics.”
Image via Wikimedia Commons
