Attack in Dagestan: Three dead after gunmen opened fire on synagogue and church in Russia

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Gunmen opened fire on a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police station in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing six police officers and wounding 12, the region’s Interior Ministry was quoted as saying.

The Interior Ministry was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that 13 people were injured in the attacks on Sunday evening.

According to reports, a police officer and a priest were killed when a synagogue and a church were shot at in Derbent, the seat of an ancient Jewish community in the South Caucasus and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

“Unknown assailants fired automatic weapons at a synagogue and a church,” the Interior Ministry said. “One police officer was killed and one injured.”

Russian news agencies reported that the synagogue was in flames after the attack.

The attackers then fled in a car. An unofficial channel of the Telegram messaging app Mash reported that the armed men had barricaded themselves in a building in Derbent.

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Another police officer was killed in a shootout at a police station in Makhachkala. The village is located about 120 kilometers north on the coast of the Caspian Sea and is the largest city in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region in southern Russia.

Fighting was later reported in the streets of Makhachkala.

The Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement that a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and police officers were killed in the “terrorist” attacks.

In April, the Russian security service FSB arrested four people in Dagestan who were suspected of involvement in the attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall the previous month.

More than 140 people were killed in the attack, which the terrorist militia “Islamic State” claimed responsibility for.

Between 2007 and 2017, a jihadist organization called the “Caucasus Emirate” and later the “Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus” carried out attacks in Dagestan and the neighboring Russian republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

This is a breaking news story – more to follow