Orthodox priest and several police officers killed in armed attack in Russia’s North Caucasus, officials say

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Gunmen opened fire on a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in attacks in two towns in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing an Orthodox priest and several police officers, the region’s head said.

“This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the whole country,” said Sergei Melikov, governor of the Dagestan region, in a video posted on the messaging app Telegram early Monday.

Melikov said more than 15 police officers had fallen victim to a “terrorist attack,” but did not specify how many police officers were killed and how many were injured. The Russian news agency Interfax reported that at least 15 police officers were killed.

The simultaneous attacks in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent came three months after 145 people were killed in an attack on a concert hall near Moscow that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for, the worst terrorist attack in Russia in years.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in the unstable North Caucasus region.

“We know who is behind the organization of the terrorist attacks and what their goal was,” Melikov said, without revealing further details.

Russia’s state media quoted law enforcement authorities as saying that among the attackers were two sons of the head of the Sergokala district in central Dagestan, who were detained by investigators.

Melikov said that in addition to the police officers, several civilians were among the dead, including an Orthodox priest who had worked in Derbent for more than 40 years. A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church said on Telegram that the priest Nikolai Kotelnikov had been “brutally murdered.”

Six of the gunmen were shot dead during the incidents, Melikov said. Russian state news agencies quoted the National Anti-Terrorism Committee as saying five of the gunmen were killed.

Reuters could not independently verify reports on how many people or gunmen were killed in the attacks.

DAYS OF MOURNING

June 24 to 26 have been declared days of mourning in Dagestan, Melikov said. Flags have been flown at half-mast and all entertainment events have been cancelled.

In the 2000s, the troubled region was plagued by an Islamist insurgency that spilled over from neighboring Chechnya. Russian security forces aggressively cracked down on the extremists in the region.

In recent years, attacks have become less frequent and Russia’s domestic intelligence service FSB declared in 2017 that it had defeated the insurgency in the region.

The agencies reported exchanges of fire in the centre of Makhachkala, citing the Interior Ministry as saying that exits from the Caspian Sea port of around 600,000 people had been closed and that conspirators still on the run could still try to flee the city.

About 125 kilometers south of Makhachkala, gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church in Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish community and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Authorities were quoted as saying that both the synagogue and the church were ablaze and that two attackers were killed.

Russian media quoted the chairman of the country’s association of Jewish communities as urging the population not to react to “provocations.”

In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said the synagogue in Derbent had been burned down and that a second synagogue in Makhachkala had been shot at. The statement said that it was unlikely that anyone was in the synagogue at the time.

Russian authorities had pointed to militant Muslim elements in previous incidents in the region.

In October, when the war in Gaza broke out, rioters waving Palestinian flags smashed glass doors and rampaged through Makhachkala airport, searching for Jewish passengers on an incoming flight from Tel Aviv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West and Ukraine of stirring up unrest in Russia in connection with the incident.

(Reporting by Felix Light in London and Ari Rabinovich in Israel; Writing by Felix Light, Ronald Popeski and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Susan Fenton, Bill Berkrot, Diane Craft, Gerry Doyle and Michael Perry)