Armenia Arrests 'Criminal Group that Plotted Assassinations'

W460

Armenia said Friday it had arrested members of a "criminal group" which allegedly plotted to assassinate prominent politicians and public figures in the ex-Soviet republic's capital.

"Armenia's National Security Agency has uncovered and neutralized an organized criminal group which was plotting in Yerevan brutal and cynical crimes against citizens, political and public figures, as well as state bodies," the agency's deputy chief, Mikael Hambartsumyan, told a news conference.

He said "21 members of the militant group were arrested, including three women," adding that explosives, grenade launchers, and submachine guns had been found in a house the group rented in central Yerevan.

Hambartsumyan identified the group's ringleader as Artur Vartanyan, a 34-year-old Armenian national who has lived in Spain since 1997 and visited Syria "in the past."

He said the arrests were made Wednesday, adding that the authorities would look into Vartanyan's "possible links to the Islamic State group."

The tiny Caucasus nation of some three million people has a history of political violence.

In what is considered the most controversial event in Armenia's post-Soviet history, in October 1999 five gunmen seized the country's parliament and shot dead the prime minister and parliament speaker as well as several other prominent politicians.

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