Death toll rises to 20 after armed men attack in Russia’s Dagestan

The death toll in a series of brazen attacks on churches and synagogues in Russia’s predominantly Muslim region of Dagestan rose to 20 on Monday after gunmen ran amok in coordinated attacks in two of the republic’s main cities.

Armed men with automatic weapons entered an Orthodox church and a synagogue in the ancient city of Derbent on Sunday evening, setting fire to an icon in the church and killing 66-year-old Orthodox priest Nikolai Kotelnikov.

In the city of Makhachkala, about 125 kilometers north on the Caspian Sea coast, attackers shot at a traffic police post and attacked a church.