Death toll rises to 20 in shooting attack in Russia’s Dagestan
Head of region visits targeted church and synagogue, declares ‘sleeper cells’ directed from abroad were behind attack that also injured 46, but gives no further details
MOSCOW – The death toll from a series of brazen attacks on churches and synagogues in Russia’s mainly Muslim region of Dagestan rose to 20 on Monday after gunmen went on the rampage in coordinated attacks in two of the republic’s most important cities.
“As a result of the terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Makhachkala and Derbent, 46 people were injured, among them civilians and law enforcement officials,” Dagestan’s health minister Tatyana Belyayeva said. “Unfortunately, 20 people had been killed,” she added, updating a previous toll of 19.
Gunmen with automatic weapons burst into an Orthodox church and a synagogue in the ancient city of Derbent on Sunday evening, setting fire to an icon at the church and killing a 66-year-old Orthodox priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov.
In the city of Makhachkala, about 125 kilometers (75 miles) north on the Caspian Sea shore, attackers shot at a traffic police post and attacked a church and another synagogue.
Gun battles erupted around the Assumption Cathedral in Makhachkala and heavy automatic gunfire rang out late into the night. Footage showed residents running for cover as plumes of smoke rose above the city.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Russia’s investigative committee initially said 15 policemen and four civilians were killed. It was not immediately clear if the 20th fatality was a security officer or a civilian. According to Dagestan’s healthcare ministry, 46 more people were wounded.
At least five attackers were killed, some were shown by local media shot dead on the pavement.
“This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the whole country,” said Sergei Melikov, the head of the Dagestan region, who on Monday visited the synagogue and church that were attacked in Derbent.
Melikov blamed members of Islamic “sleeper cells” directed from abroad but didn’t give any other details. He said in a video statement that the assailants aimed at “sowing panic and fear,” and attempted to link the attack to Moscow’s military action in Ukraine — but also provided no evidence.
“This is an attempt to cleave apart our unity,” he said.
The affiliate of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for a March theater massacre in Moscow quickly praised the attack in Dagestan, saying it was conducted by “brothers in the Caucasus who showed that they are still strong.”
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War argued that the Islamic State group’s North Caucasus branch, Vilayat Kavkaz, likely was behind the attack, describing it as “complex and coordinated.”
Dagestan announced three days of mourning. Photos of the dead policemen were lined up on the street by red carnations.
President Vladimir Putin, who has long accused the West of trying to stoke separatism in the Caucasus, has yet to comment.
Dagestan is a mainly Muslim republic of Russia’s North Caucasus, a patchwork of ethnic groups, languages, and regions that live in the shadow of the Caucasus mountains between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea.
Dagestan
The attack on Christian and Jewish places of worship stoked fears Russia may be facing a renewed militant Islamist threat just three months after a deadly attack in Moscow.
In the Moscow attack, 145 people were killed at the Crocus concert hall, an attack claimed by Islamic State.
In October, after the war in Gaza broke out, rioters waving Palestinian flags broke down glass doors and rampaged through Makhachkala airport to look for Jewish passengers on a flight arriving from Tel Aviv.
Israel’s foreign ministry said the synagogue in Derbent had been burned to the ground and shots had been fired at a second synagogue in Makhachkala. The statement said it was believed there were no worshippers in the synagogue at the time.
Derbent, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, is home to an ancient Jewish community and a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Russian investigators said it was a “terrorist” attack but did not give details of the attackers.
Russia’s state media cited law enforcement as saying two sons of Magomed Omarov, the head of central Dagestan’s Sergokala district, were among the attackers in Dagestan. They were killed and their father was detained, state media said.
June 24 to 26 have been declared days of mourning in Dagestan, Melikov said, with flags lowered to half-mast and all entertainment events canceled.
The Russian Empire expanded into the Caucasus in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, but an insurgency after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union led to two wars.
In August 1999, Chechen fighter Shamil Basayev led fighters into Dagestan in a bid to aid Dagestani Wahhabist fundamentalists, triggering a major bombing campaign by the Russian military ahead of the Second Chechen War.
