At least 12 people from the community were injured in attacks on playgrounds in the towns of Derbent and Makhachkala on Sunday, the Russian Orthodox Church’s festival of Pentecost.
Videos posted on social media and shown on Russian TV showed the sky over Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish congregation in an originally Muslim area, filled with smoke and flames, later over a synagogue. caught on fire.
Devotional parks were also attacked in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan and its largest city, about 125 km (78 mi) away, where a police post was also attacked.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal investigation into “terrorist acts” in Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya and is undoubtedly one of Russia’s poorest regions.
“This evening armed attacks were carried out on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police post in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala,” the Nationwide Anti-Terrorism Committee said in a comment to the RIA Novosti news agency.
“As a result of terrorist attacks, according to preliminary information, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and a police officer were killed.”
The Russian Orthodox Church said its Archpriest Nikolai Kotelnikov was “brutally killed” in Derbent.
‘International Terrorist Organization’
The attack on the Derbent synagogue occurred on a playground about 40 minutes before the start of night prayers.
“The synagogue in Derbent is on fire,” Boruch Gorin, chairman of the population council of the Union of Jewish Communities of Russia, wrote on Telegram. “The synagogue in Makhachkala was also set on fire and burned down.”
Makhachkala’s rabbi, Rami Davydov, told state-run RIA Novosti that no one was killed or injured there.
Dagestan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said 19 of the community had taken refuge in a church in the city before being evacuated to safety.
Sergei Melikov, head of the Republic of Dagestan, said the six attackers had been “eliminated”.
The Russian information agency TASS reported that the gunmen were members of “an international terrorist organization”, citing law enforcement agencies.
The attackers have not been found yet.
“Unknown people attempted to destabilize the public situation in Derbent and Makhachkala tonight,” Melikov said.
“Dagestan police officers stood in their way. According to initial information, many of these people have been injured. All services are working as per instructions… The identity of the attackers is being established.
The attacks came three months after gunmen opened fire on a rock concert in the Crocus Town corridor on the outskirts of Moscow, killing about 133 people. The Islamic State in Khorasan province, based in Afghanistan, said it was behind the attack, although Moscow claimed without evidence that Ukraine had a role in it.
Russia’s FSB security provider said in April it had arrested four networks in Dagestan on suspicion of involvement in a plot to carry out the Crocus Town corridor attack.
In an update on the events of 23 June, the Washington, DC-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the Russian section of ISKP’s Al-Azaim Media had praised “their brothers from the Caucasus” for their performance. Features in Dagestan.
ISW noted, “Notably, al-Azzam did not claim credit for the attack, and the reference to the Caucasus strongly suggests that Wilayat Kavkaz (ISIL’s North Caucasus branch) is responsible for the attack.”
Daniel Hawkins, reporting for Al Jazeera from Moscow, said there was marked unrest in Dagestan in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“The violence there, as the years went on, went down,” Hawkins said, explaining that Patch has never seen the kind of war that has engulfed the neighboring Russian republic of Chechnya. Where Russian forces fought two brutal battles. Same period.
Hawkins said, “This kind of attack that is coordinated and targeted civilian religious infrastructure is very unusual and will no doubt be shocking to Russians across the country.”
On the October deadline, a large number of people stormed the airport in Makhachkala, demanding that planes from Israel land there. At least 60 people were arrested after they bypassed runway security and stormed the runway across from the aircraft, shouting anti-Semitic slogans.
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