Death toll in Dagestan attack rises, officials say

At least 15 police officers and four civilians were killed in two apparently coordinated attacks by armed men in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, Russian investigators said on Monday.

Armed with rifles and Molotov cocktails, the attackers attacked synagogues and Orthodox churches in two major cities in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region on the Caspian Sea, on Sunday evening.

One of the civilians killed was Nikolai Kotelnikov, a priest from Derbent. The attackers also set fire to a synagogue in the city.

The shooters were at large for hours and engaged in shootouts with police officers, according to the region’s Interior Ministry. Five attackers were eventually killed, local authorities said.

Russian investigators described the attack as an act of terrorism, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible.

Local officials declared a three-day mourning period in Dagestan, a multi-religious and ethnically diverse region, and said the victims’ families would receive special compensation.

The Kremlin spokesman said on Monday that President Vladimir V. Putin receives regular reports about the attack, but does not plan to address the nation on the matter. The spokesman, Dmitry S. Peskov, declined to comment on the shooters’ motives.

The attack was the latest in a series of extremist acts of violence in Russia in recent months and highlighted the complex security problems facing the country, which remains embroiled in a war with neighboring Ukraine.

In March, four armed men killed 145 people in an attack on a concert hall near Moscow. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. And last October, a mob in Dagestan, apparently looking for Jewish passengers, stormed a plane from Tel Aviv.

Russian officials tried to cover up intelligence failures in the Moscow concert hall attack by blaming the West and Ukraine without providing evidence. And initial statements from officials after Sunday’s attack suggested the government in Dagestan might use similar tactics.

“We know who is behind these terrorist acts,” said Sergei Melikov, Dagestan’s top official, in an address to the population. He compared the victims of the attack to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, saying they had faced the same enemy.

“We must understand that war is entering our homes,” Mr Melikov added.

In his daily press conference on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Peskov appeared to draw a link between the violence in Dagestan and another attack by Ukraine on occupied Crimea on Sunday. However, he did not directly blame Ukraine or the West for the attack in Dagestan.

Russia’s Anti-Terrorism Committee, which coordinates the fight against terrorism in the country, said in a statement that two attackers were killed in Derbent and three more in Makhachkala. Law enforcement officials were looking for accomplices.

Investigators did not reveal their identities and their motives were not immediately clear.

The agency also released a video showing burned-out cars, weapons in pools of blood and heavily armed security officers chasing the suspected perpetrators in an Orthodox church. The video could not be independently verified.

Mr Melikov said the manhunt in the republic would continue until “all members of extremist sleeper cells” – who “were undoubtedly also prepared from abroad” – were caught.

On Monday, he visited the attack sites in Derbent. He walked through the halls of the local synagogue, which is home to one of Russia’s oldest Jewish communities. According to a video released by the regional government, the main hall of the synagogue was burned down as a result of the attack. This video could not be independently verified either.

Oleg Matsnev made a research contribution.