(Moscow) Armed men attacked Orthodox churches and at least one synagogue in the Russian Caucasus on Sunday, killing around ten people, including a priest and police officers, authorities announced, denouncing “terrorist” acts.
The attacks took place in the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, Makhachkala, and the coastal city of Derbent. Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim Russian region neighboring Chechnya, also close to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Anti-terrorist operations are regularly announced there by the Russian authorities.
There is no evidence to determine the motivations or identities of the perpetrators of these attacks, which appear to be coordinated. The Russian Investigative Committee indicated that it had opened a criminal investigation into “terrorist acts”, without further details.
Dagestan leader Sergei Melikov said Sunday evening that “unknown persons had tried to destabilize society.” “We know who is behind these terrorist attacks and what objective they are pursuing,” he added later, without specifying who was in the sights, but referring to the war in Ukraine.
“We must understand that war comes to our homes too. We felt it, but today we face it,” he said.
He added that “the active phase” of operations in Derbent and Makhachkala “was over” and that “six bandits had been liquidated.” The authorities will try to find “all the members of these sleeper cells who prepared (the attacks) and who were prepared, including abroad,” he added.
Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and staunch supporter of the Kremlin, assured that the “enemy” sought to destroy “inter-religious peace” in Russia. Its goal is to “plant the seeds of hatred”, he denounced, without naming those responsible.
Sunday’s attacks targeted “two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police checkpoint,” announced the Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee, cited by the Ria Novosti agency. Jewish representatives, including the Russian Jewish Congress, said a second synagogue was also burned.
A 66-year-old Russian Orthodox Church priest was killed in Derbent, authorities said. Six police officers were killed and 13 others injured, according to the Dagestan Interior Ministry. Authorities later said a National Guard officer also died, and another police officer succumbed to his injuries.
Nine deaths in total, even if the authorities have not communicated an overall toll. A total of 16 people, including 13 police officers, were injured and hospitalized, according to the ministry.
Armed individuals also opened fire on a vehicle carrying police officers, injuring one of them, in Sergokala, a village located between Makhachkala and Derbent, the local Interior Ministry further clarified to Russian agencies.
Three days of mourning have been declared in Dagestan, from Monday to Wednesday, the local administration said.
Synagogue on fire
Synagogues in Derbent and Makhachkala were burned, according to the chairman of the public council of Jewish communities of the Russian Federation, Boruch Gorin.
Images, reported by Russian media, showed a burning building, presented as a synagogue.
In other videos, gunshots could be heard in the streets of Makhachkala, where a large police force was deployed.
The authenticity of these images could not immediately be verified by AFP.
In October, riots hostile to Israel broke out at Makhachkala airport.
A crowd of men had invaded its tarmac, amid tensions across the world linked to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, when a plane from Israel landed.
Russia has been targeted on multiple occasions by attacks and attacks claimed by the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS), even if its influence remains limited in the country.
In March, an attack claimed by ISIS at Crocus City Hall, a concert hall in the Moscow suburbs, killed more than 140 people.
Last weekend, several ISIS members were killed after taking two prison officers hostage in a prison in southern Russia, authorities said.
Russia faced an Islamist rebellion in the early 2000s in the Caucasus, a movement born from the first conflict against separatist Chechnya in 1994-1996. It was defeated by Russian federal forces and in recent years, armed incidents have become rare there.
Nearly 4,500 Russians, particularly from the Caucasus, fought alongside IS in Iraq and Syria, according to official figures.