Deadly attacks on synagogues and churches in Dagestan

Numerous people have been killed in attacks on police officers, two churches and a synagogue in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

On the Orthodox Pentecost, armed men attacked the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala.

Among the dead are at least six police officers, a priest and a security guard. Four of the attackers are dead and the police are searching for others.

The attackers have not been identified, but Dagestan has been the scene of Islamist attacks in the past.

In the attacks on Sunday, churches and synagogues were set on fire. In Makhachkala, the largest city in Dagestan, an Orthodox priest was killed.

Footage posted on social media shows people in dark clothing 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 and then set them on fire.

An unofficial channel on the Telegram messaging app Mash said armed men had barricaded themselves in a building in Derbent.

A police vehicle was attacked in the village of Sergokal. Police detained Magomed Omarov, the head of Sergokalinsky district near Makhachkala, after reports emerged that two of his sons were among the perpetrators of Sunday’s attacks.

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

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.

At the time, President Vladimir Putin stressed that “Russia cannot be the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists” because it represents “a unique example of harmony between religions and unity between religions and ethnic groups.”

And yet, three months ago, the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB reported that it had foiled an IS plan to attack a Moscow synagogue.

Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russians have believed that their main enemies are Ukraine and the “collective West.” The Russian authorities are reluctant to change this message so as not to cast doubt on the official narrative among the public.