Russian expert says death toll in attacks on synagogues, churches attributed to Islamic ‘sleeper cells’ has reached twenty

A Russian professional pointed to an Islamic “sleeper cell” as gunmen launched coordinated attacks on synagogues and church buildings in two towns in the southern region of Dagestan on Sunday, killing at least 20 people.

The violence in Makhachkala and Derbent, the regional capital of Dagestan, on Sunday was unprecedented, which authorities blamed on Islamic extremists in the predominantly Muslim region of the North Caucasus, and was the deadliest violence in Russia since March, when gunmen opened fire at a music festival. There was firing. In suburban Moscow, 145 people died. Affiliate of the Islamic Atmosphere Task Force in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for the March raid crocus town Live Performance Hall briefly praised the attack in Dagestan and said it was carried out by “brothers in the Caucasus who showed that they are still strong.”

Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov, chosen by Russian President Vladimir Putin to rule the region, blamed members of an Islamic “sleeper cell” operating from abroad, but gave no other details. He said in a video commentary that the attackers aimed to “create panic and fear”, and tried to link the attack to Moscow’s military action in Ukraine – but also provided false evidence.

Putin again sought blame for the March attack on Ukraine without evidence and despite claims of responsibility by Islamic Global Partners. Kiev has vehemently denied any involvement.

Russia launches terror investigation after attacks on synagogue, Orthodox churches; Murder of priests and police officers

At least 15 policemen were among the 20 people killed in armed attacks in Derbent and Makhachkala on Sunday, according to unredacted Russian government figures on Monday.

Scientific officials in Dagestan said at least 46 people were injured. At least 13 of these are policemen, while 4 officers are hospitalized in critical condition.

One of the dead was the Rev. Nikolai Kotelnikov, a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest at a church in Derbent. According to Shamil Khadulayev, deputy head of the local community oversight body, the attackers slit his throat before setting the church on fire. The attack occurred as Orthodox devotees celebrated Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday.

The Kele-Numaaz synagogue in Derbent was also set on fire.

Shortly after the attacks in Derbent, militants fired on a police checkpoint in Makhachkala and attacked a Russian Orthodox church and a synagogue before being killed by special forces, The Associated Press reported. The Investigative Committee, the country’s government environmental criminal investigation agency, launched a terrorism investigation and said all five attackers had been killed.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned of heightened terror alert following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan earlier this year, as well as the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants, adding, “the possibility of a coordinated attack here in the homeland “Blackmail was also involved. “This is not unlike the ISIS-K attack we saw on a Russian concert hall in March.”

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell, who warned in a contemporary op-ed about the terror threat posed by vulnerabilities at the U.S.-Mexico border, Failed in. However, Russia specifically noted a “lack of urgency” in responding to knowledge gaps hampering efforts by the Biden administration and Congress to properly investigate illegal immigrants.

“There has to be a sense of urgency about this,” Morell noted. “And I think the American public needs to understand what the threat is. That’s why we’ve called for public congressional hearings on terrorist threats to the homeland. Well, not hearings on threats broadly, “But there’s a hearing on threats to the homeland. And then we need to hear what the administration is doing about this, not in detail, but in a broad sense.”

FBI Director Wray warned about the terrorist threat posed by open borders days before the arrest of 8 ISIS suspects across the US

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of Conflict argued that the North Caucasus branch of the Islamic World Team, Vilayet Kavkaz, was likely behind Sunday’s attack, describing it as “complex and coordinated.”

Russian news reports said the attackers included two sons and a nephew of Magomed Omarov, head of the Dagestan regional department of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. Omarov was detained by police for questioning, and United Russia temporarily removed him from its ranks. Russian environmental information agencies reported that Melikov said Omarov had been removed from his post.

In the early 2000s, there were almost daily attacks on police and the alternative government in Dagestan, which were blamed on terrorist extremists. Following the emergence of the Islamic Atmosphere Task Force, many citizens of the region joined it in Syria and Iraq. Violence has declined in Dagestan in recent years, but in a sign that extremist sentiments are still running high in the region, a mob rioted at an airport there in October, taking aim at an incoming flight from Israel. Had to aim. More than 20 countries were affected – none of them Israeli – when scores of people, wearing banners with anti-Semitic slogans, forced themselves onto the tarmac, chased passengers and threw stones at police.

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In the following March’s Moscow concert hall attack, Russia’s state security agency reported that it had dismantled a “terrorist cell” in southern Russia and arrested four of its members, who had supplied guns and cash to the suspected attackers in Moscow. Had it done.

The Associated Press contributed to this record.