A day of mourning will be held in Russia’s Dagestan region after attacks left 20 people dead, officials say

An offshoot of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack in March and immediately praised the attack in Dagestan. It was carried out by “brothers in the Caucasus who have shown that they are still strong.”

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War believes that the North Caucasus branch of the terrorist militia “Islamic State”, Vilayat Kavkaz, is probably behind the attack. The attack was “complex and coordinated”, the report says.

Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov blamed members of Islamic “sleeper cells” controlled from abroad, but gave no further details. In a video statement, he said the attackers aimed to “spread panic and fear” and tried to link the attack to Moscow’s military action in Ukraine – but again provided no evidence.

President Vladimir Putin had tried to blame Ukraine for the attack in March, again without providing any evidence and despite the IS offshoot claiming responsibility. Kiev has vehemently denied any involvement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had received reports of Sunday’s attacks and efforts were underway to help the victims.

The Investigative Committee, the state’s top criminal police agency, said all five attackers were killed. Of the 20 people killed, at least 15 were police officers.

Health authorities in Dagestan said at least 46 people were injured. At least 13 of them were police officers, and four officers were hospitalized in serious condition.

Among the dead was Rev. Nikolai Kotelnikov, a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest at a church in Derbent. The attackers slit his throat before setting fire to the church, said Shamil Khadulayev, deputy head of a local public inspectorate. The attack occurred as Orthodox believers were celebrating Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday.

Melikov, the governor of Dagestan, said on Sunday that the dead included a Russian Orthodox believer and 18 Muslims.

The Kele Numaz Synagogue in Derbent was also set on fire.

Shortly after the attacks in Derbent, militants fired on a police post in Makhachkala and attacked a Russian Orthodox church and a synagogue there before being killed by special forces.

According to Russian news reports, the attackers included the two sons and a nephew of Magomed Omarov, the head of the Dagestan regional branch of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. Omarov was detained by police for questioning and promptly dismissed from United Russia’s ranks. Melikov later said Omarov had been removed from his post, Russian state news agencies reported.

In the early 2000s, there were almost daily attacks on police and other authorities in Dagestan, which were blamed on militant extremists. After the rise of the terrorist group “Islamic State”, many residents of the region joined it in Syria and Iraq.

Violence in Dagestan has subsided in recent years, but one sign that extremist sentiments still exist in the region is the rioting crowd at an airport in October that attacked a flight from Israel. More than 20 people were injured – none of them Israelis – when hundreds of men, some carrying banners with anti-Semitic slogans, stormed the tarmac, chasing passengers and throwing stones at police officers.

The shooting at the airport refuted the Kremlin’s claim that ethnic and religious groups live together in harmony in Russia.

After the attack on the Moscow Concert Hall in March, Russian intelligence reported that it had broken up a so-called “terrorist cell” in southern Russia and arrested four of its members who had supplied weapons and cash to suspected attackers in Moscow.

Harold Chambers, a political and security analyst specializing in the North Caucasus, noted that the authorities’ response to Sunday’s attack was “significantly more comprehensive than anything we have seen in the past, but still inadequate, particularly in terms of response time.”

“They were definitely surprised by this attack,” he said. “What we’re seeing here is still this discrepancy between Russia’s counterterrorism capabilities and the capabilities of terrorists in Russia.”