The suspects were detained in a two-day operation in a village in the mainly Muslim Ingushetia province that officials said left eight dead including Alexander Tikhomirov, a prominent insurgent leader who went by the name Said Buryatsky.

The head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) told President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday that evidence from the site linked Tikhomirov's group to the bombing of the Nevsky Express, which killed 26 people travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg.