Attacks on police posts, churches, and a synagogue in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have left 19 police officers and several civilians dead. Six gunmen were also killed.
At least sixteen people were taken to hospitals with injuries.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia that neighbours Chechnya.
The apparently coordinated attacks targeted the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on the Orthodox festival of Pentecost, with an Orthodox priest among those killed.
He was later identified by the head of the Republic of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, as Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had served in Derbent for more than 40 years.
Footage posted on social media showed people wearing dark clothes shooting at police cars before a convoy of emergency service vehicles arrive at the scene.
In Derbent – home to an ancient Jewish community – gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church, which were then set on fire. Dagestan has in the past been the scene of Islamist attacks.
Although the assailants have not been officially identified, Russian media widely reported that among the gunmen were two sons of the head of the Sergokalinsky district near Makhachkala, Magomed Omarov. The suspects, Osman and Adil Omarov have been detained by police.
However, in a video posted on Telegram, the republic’s head, Sergei Melikov, implied Ukraine had been involved in the attack and that Dagestan was now directly involved in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The head of the Russian State Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, put forward similar claims, saying that the Dagestan attacks and a missile strike which killed four in Russia-occupied Sevastopol on Sunday “could not be a coincidence”.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
