Attack in Dagestan: Video shows armed men attacking synagogues and churches in southern Russia

Attacks on police stations, churches and a synagogue in the North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan left 19 police officers and several civilians dead. Six armed men also died.

The attack is said to have been coordinated and targeted the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on the day of the Orthodox Pentecost.

The authorities were unaware that Dagestan had been the scene of Islamist attacks in the past.

The Republic’s President, Sergei Melikov, said they knew who was behind the attacks, but did not provide any details.

Two churches and a synagogue were targeted in Sunday attacks, as was a police station in Makhachkala, Dagestan’s largest city. An Orthodox priest was among those killed.

Na Oga Melikov gave the number of more than 15 police officers killed in his actions. He also said that several civilians lost their lives, including a priest, Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, who, according to him, had served in Derbent for more than 40 years.

Oga Melikov has announced that three days of mourning will begin on Monday.

Authorities never revealed the names of the shooters, but in a Telegram video, Oga Melikov said an attack was being prepared abroad and that Dagestan was now directly intervening in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“We know who is behind the organization of these terrorist attacks and what their goals are,” he said.

An influential Russian nationalist for occupied Ukraine, Dmitry Rogozin, warned, saying that if every attack was blamed on “the machinations of Ukraine and NATO, this pink fog will get us into big trouble.”

A video posted on social media shows dark-clad police officers shooting at police cars before a convoy of emergency vehicles arrives at the scene.

In Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish community, gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church, which were later set on fire.

According to journalists, a police vehicle was also attacked near the village of Sergokal. Police detained Magomed Omarov, the head of Sergokalinsky district near Makhachkala, after two of his sons were among the perpetrators who carried out attacks on Sunday.

Russian news agencies reported on Monday morning that the anti-terrorist operation that began after the attacks had now ended.

Dagestan, one of the poorest regions of Russia, a predominantly Muslim republic.

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

After an attack on the Crocus City Hall near Moscow in March, the authorities blamed Ukraine and the West, even though the terrorist militia “Islamic State” claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, President Vladimir Putin stressed that “Russia must not be the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists” because it shows “a unique example of harmony between religions and unity between religions and ethnic groups.”

And yet, in the past three months, the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB announced that it had foiled an IS attack on a Moscow synagogue.