March 27, 2019 - 3:41 AM
MOSCOW - The Russian intelligence agency in the occupied Ukrainian Crimean peninsula says that it is searching multiple homes for members of a banned extremist organization.
The FSB said Wednesday that the raids are ongoing but did not say if anyone has been detained.
Russian security forces have targeted members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir group even since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 in a move that Ukraine and almost all of the world view as illegal. The Islamist group is not banned in Ukraine but Russia and several other ex-Soviet nations consider it to be a "terrorist" organization.
Ukraine's human rights ombudswoman reported seven arrests of Crimean Tatars who are predominantly Muslim in locations across the peninsula on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry has decried the raids as human rights violations.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019