On October 10th, Kosovo Police arrested 5 alleged ISIS members who were planning attacks in the country.
Among the arrested suspects are those previously convicted of terrorism and even militants who went first to Turkey and then to Syria to join ISIS.
More recently, Kosovo police published photographs of seized weapons, ammunition, explosives and other materials.
Figure 1.1: Type 69 RPG Launcher, PGO-pattern scope and Type 69-1 HEAT Projectiles.
The RPG Launcher, scope, and projectiles all appear to be made in China. However, it is possible to see that another seized weapon came from a place closer to the area:
Figure 1.2: A shortened Zastava M70AB2 rifle along with large quantity of 7.62x39mm bullets and magazines.
AK-type weapons produced in the Balkan countries can be observed in the black market and attacks in many countries in the region. A weapon of the same model was also used in the attack undertaken by ISIS in Vienna on November 2, 2020 (although the barrel length of the weapon here was standard size).
Apart from the weapons mentioned above, at least two well-preserved AK-type assault rifles and possibly even one heavy machine gun receiver were also seized. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to fully identify these weapons and materials that were wrapped for preservation.
Figure 1.3: Captured and wrapped AK-platform rifles and explosives.
Figure 1.4: Possible wrapped HMG receiver on the far right.
In addition to the explosives seized, it is possible to see that at least two different types of grenades were seized by the security forces. These grenades appear to be the F-1 and RGD-5 hand grenades.
Figure 1.5: Two F-1 and three RGD-5 hand grenades without fuzes.
Figure 1.6: F-1 pattern hand grenade, UZRGM pattern fuze, a detonator (perhaps an SPD) and possible TNT blocks.
In addition to the explosives, bullets and weapons, a quadcopter drone, BaoFeng BF-F8HP radios and money were seized from the suspects.
Figure 1.7: Captured quadcopter drone.
Figure 1.8: BoaFeng BF-F8HP radios.
Figure 1.9 & 1.10: Seized money from the suspects.
It should be also noted that, according to various sources, the suspects had bought from the Kosovo Police during a simulated sale on October 7th. Therefore, it can be said that the police followed the suspects from the moment of sale. Therefore, it is conceivable that the guns sold were previously seized by the police from different criminals. This scenario seems likely, given that the arrested suspects were under police pursuit prior to the purchase of these weapons.
Nevertheless, the seized surveillance, communication tools as well as explosives and weapons show that they had enough, if not more, materials in their possession to carry out an extremely effective and dangerous attack/attacks in the region.
All photos are taken from the Facebook page of “Kosovo Police.”
Other Sources: BalkanSight.com, Telegrafi.com