ISIS hand seen Kazakhstan attacks

A team of two gunmen killed three security officers and two civilians in an attack on police station and an office of the National Security Committee (KNB) inĀ Kazakhstan’s commercial capitalĀ Almaty July 18. While no group hasĀ yet taken responsibility for the attack, the shootings come a month after a deadly assault in the northwestern town of Aktobe. In the June 6 incident, a number of militants in AktobeĀ stole guns from sporting goods stores and attackedĀ a military post. In the ensuing shoot-out,Ā 12 of the attackers were killed and nine were detained. Within days, aĀ court in Aktobe convicted the nine and three alleged accomplices of plotting the attackĀ on behalf of ISIS. The suspects in the Almaty attack remainĀ at large. A “terrorism alert” has been declared in the city. While this is the first report of an ISIS franchise in Kazakhstan, depressed oil prices are causing economic chaos in the Central Asian nation.Ā (Russia Direct, EurasiaNet, NYT,Ā Bloomberg)