Russia blast suspect 'was IS member'

Moscow: A news agency affiliated to the Islamic State group said today that one of the suspects in a weekend explosion in Russia that injured police was a member of the jihadist outfit.

The Amaq news agency released a video saying that "one of those who carried out the attack on the military base in Nizhny Novgorod", a city around 400 kilometres east of Moscow, belonged to IS.

The video referred to an explosion that reportedly injured two officers from the special police during an security operation on Sunday.

An unnamed source told TASS news agency that law enforcement officers had stopped a car that contained explosives and shot dead two of its occupants who resisted arrest. A third suspect was detained alive, according to reports.

The operation reportedly took place in a residential area of Nizhny Novgorod, an industrial city of more than one million people on the banks of the Volga River.

The local branch of the FSB security service said Monday that it was investigating the incident and that it had opened a criminal case.

Russia's NTV television quoted a source as saying the suspects were IS members who had come to Nizhny Novgorod to prepare a terror attack and were renting a flat in one of its suburbs.

Such special security operations are frequent in Russia's volatile North Caucasus against Islamist insurgents but are rare in the central region.

In March, IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed a policeman in Russia's restive Dagestan region.

And last year the group claimed responsibility for a shooting at an ancient citadel in Dagestan that killed one and injured 11.