Russian authorities have foiled a suspected arson terror plot against a synagogue, state media reported on Monday.
One man, a Russian national with alleged ties to terror operatives in Syria, was arrested by the Federal Security Service (FSB), according to the TASS news agency.
Investigators say that the man was being instructed by a Syrian handler and had purchased the materials needed to construct firebombs.
He has also taken reconnaissance photos of a synagogue in the city of Yaroslavl, around 160 miles north-east of Moscow, per the FSB.
Authorities believe he was intending to commit an arson attack on the property, after which he allegedly planned to flee to Syria and join the unidentified terror group.
However, he was identified and arrested before he could carry out any attack and confessed to intending to set fire to the synagogue in a video released by the FSB.
A criminal case has now been opened against him, with investigators examining charges of preparing for a terrorist attack and participating in the activities of an organisation recognised as terrorist on the territory of the Russian Federation.
It comes after a spate of arson attacks against Jewish sites in Europe, some of which have been linked to terror groups and hostile state actors, including Iran’s IRGC.
Earlier this year, US authorities charged Iranian-born Mohammad al-Saadi with orchestrating at least 18 attacks across Europe on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including firebombings targeting synagogues and other Jewish institutions in the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Al-Saadi also allegedly tried to hire a Mexican cartel operative to target American Jews, before being arrested in Turkey last month and extradited to the United States.
Authorities reportedly regard al-Saadi as a senior operative with longstanding ties to Iran-backed militias in Iraq, including Kata'ib Hezbollah, which Washington has designated a terrorist organisation (it is a separate entity to Lebanon's Hezbollah group).
Prosecutors allege that al-Saadi helped establish a front organisation known as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or HAYI, which claimed responsibility for a series of attacks across Europe earlier this year.
At a preliminary hearing in Manhattan, al-Saadi pleaded not guilty. He described himself as a "prisoner of war" through an interpreter, according to the Sunday Times.
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