Gunmen in Russian Dagestan kill police and priest in ‘terrorist attack’

Gunmen attacked churches and synagogues in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing at least eight police officers and national guard members and a priest, officials said.

The unidentified gunmen launched simultaneous attacks in Dagestan’s largest city, Makhachkala, and the coastal city of Derbent.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched a criminal investigation into “terrorist acts” in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region of Russia bordering Chechnya.

The President of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, wrote on Telegram: “This evening in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown persons (attackers) tried to destabilize the situation in society.”

“We know who is behind these terrorist attacks and what their goal is,” he later added, without giving further details but referring to the war in Ukraine.

“We must understand that war is coming into our homes too. We have felt it, but today we are confronted with it,” he said.

Melikov said the “active phase” of operations in Derbent and Makhachkala had ended and “six bandits were liquidated.”

Authorities would try to “find all members of these sleeper cells who planned and prepared (the attacks), including abroad,” he added.

Russian authorities said police killed four gunmen in Makhachkala and two in Derbent.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and an ardent supporter of the Kremlin, said the “enemy” was trying to destroy “interreligious peace” in Russia. However, he did not name those responsible.

The attacks targeted “two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police checkpoint,” the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a statement to the RIA Novosti news agency.

“According to preliminary information, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and police officers were killed as a result of the terrorist attacks.”

The Russian Orthodox Church said Archpriest Nikolai Kotelnikov was “brutally murdered” in Derbent.

In total, six officers were killed and twelve injured in the attacks, Dagestani Interior Ministry spokeswoman Gayana Gariyeva told RIA Novosti.

The ministry later added that a local police chief had died from his injuries.

Meanwhile, the Russian National Guard said one of its officers was killed in Derbent and several others were injured.

The Dagestani Interior Ministry said that a total of 16 people were injured in the attacks, including 13 police officers.

In another incident, the ministry said, armed men also shot at a police car in the village of Sergokal, 65 kilometers from Makhachkala, injuring a policeman.

– Synagogues burn –

In the Russian Orthodox Church, Sunday is a religious holiday, Pentecost Sunday.

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said 19 people had sought shelter in a church in Makhachkala and were later brought to safety.

In both cities, armed men also carried out attacks on synagogues.

“The synagogue in Derbent is burning,” wrote the chairman of the Public Council of the Russian Federation of Jewish Communities, Boruch Gorin, on Telegram.

“The synagogue in Makhachkala was also set on fire and burned down,” he said.

Makhachkala Rabbi Rami Davidov later told RIA Novosti that no one was killed or injured there.

The Russian Jewish Congress said on its website that the Derbent synagogue was attacked about 40 minutes before evening prayers.

Gunmen shot at police and security forces and threw Molotov cocktails, it was reported. The attack in Makhachkala was similar.

The state news agency TASS quoted a law enforcement source as saying that “the armed men who carried out the attacks in Makhachkala and Derbent are supporters of an international terrorist organization,” without naming them.

The Russian secret service FSB announced in April that it had arrested four people in Dagestan. They are accused of planning the deadly attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Moscow in March, which the terrorist group Islamic State claimed responsibility for.

Militants from Dagestan are known to have joined ISIS in Syria, and in 2015 the group announced that it had established a branch in the North Caucasus.

Dagestan lies east of Chechnya, where Russian authorities fought two brutal wars against separatists, first from 1994 to 1996 and then from 1999 to 2000.

Since the defeat of the Chechen insurgents, Russian authorities have been embroiled in a simmering conflict with Islamist militants from across the North Caucasus, which has left scores of civilians and police officers dead.

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