US, Russian forces hunt 'jihadist white widow' feared inside Olympic zone

AMERICAN counterterrorism operatives have joined Russian security agents in the hunt for a 'jihadist white widow', with fears she may be inside the security zone set up for next month's winter Olympics.

Ruzanna Ibragimova, the 22-year-old widow of a terrorist killed during the Moscow theatre attack, is believed to have travelled from Dagestan to Sochi on or around January 11.

A known member of a Chechen jihadist group, she was recently spotted on the street outside the foreign ministry near Sochi, according to FoxNews.com sources.

A bulletin put out by the Russian security force FSB states: \"According to our information Ms Ibragimova may be used by the ringleaders of illegal armed groups for the organisation of terrorist acts in the zone of the 2014 Olympics.\"

According to US security forces, \"the notice is the first sign that terrorists may have managed to penetrate the security cordon.\"

There are fears as many as four \"widows\" could be on the loose in Sochi.

US forces are working with their Russian counterparts inside the massive, 2,400km security zone set up to prevent attacks during the Winter Olympics.

\"Russia has deployed 40,000 police and security personnel in a 'ring of steel' around Sochi to deter attacks by Islamist militants from the nearby North Caucasus republics,\" according to a US security bulletin.

US and inteational experts have become increasingly conceed about security in the zone, in light of recent attacks and a call from Doku Umarov, the jihadist leader who has been described as Russia"s Osama Bin Laden, for attacks and to stop Russia from hosting the Games.

The news comes after a video was posted online by a group identifying itself as Vilayat Dagestan by two men claiming responsibility for recent suicide bombings of a train station and bus that killed 34 people in Volgograd. In the video, the men wa that other suicide attacks will follow.

On hours before the video was released, President Vladimir Putin had assured visitors to Sochi that they would be safe.

\"We will try to make certain that the security measures are not intrusive or too conspicuous, so they are not too noticeable for the athletes, the Olympics' guests or joualists,\" Mr Putin said.

\"But at the same time, we will do our utmost to ensure that they are effective.\"

However, US Senator Angus King, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday that he wouldn't go to the Games \"and I don't think I would send my family\".

There has been no reaction to the terror threat video from the Russian security services as yet.

In addition to the Volgograd attacks, there has also been violence in recent days in the southe republic of Dagestan - the latest unrest linked to a long-running Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region.

Vilayat Dagestan is one of the groups that make up the so-called Caucasus Emirate, which seeks to establish an independent Islamic state in the North Caucasus, a region just to the east of Sochi on Russia's southe border.

Dagestan, one of several predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus, has become the centre of the Islamic insurgency that has spread throughout the region following separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya.

The Chechen leader of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov, had ordered a halt to attacks on civilian targets in 2012, but he rescinded that order in July and urged his followers to try to undermine the Olympics.

The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya claimed last week that Umarov was dead, but the claim couldn't be verified.

The Vilayat Dagestan statement said the Volgograd attacks were carried out in part because of Umarov's order, but didn't specifically say he had ordered them.