Gunmen kill at least 15 police officers, priest in Russia’s Dagestan
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A screengrab taken from a video released on June 23, 2024, shows a shooting scene on the street of Makhachkala, Dagestan, in southern Russiain.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MOSCOW – Gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in attacks across two cities in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on June 23, killing an Orthodox priest and at least 15 police officers, the region’s head said.
“This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the whole country,” Mr Sergei Melikov, governor of the Dagestan region, said in a video published early on June 24 on the Telegram messaging app.
The simultaneous attacks across the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent came three months after 145 people were killed in an attack claimed by militant group ISIS on a concert hall near Moscow, Russia’s worst terrorist attack in years.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks in the volatile North Caucasus region.
“We understand who are behind the organisation of the terrorist attacks and what goal they pursued,” Mr Melikov said, without disclosing further details.
Russia’s state media cited law enforcement as saying that two sons of the head of central Dagestan’s Sergokala district were among the attackers and had been detained by investigators.
Mr Melikov said that among the dead, in addition to the police officers, were several civilians, including an Orthodox priest who had worked in Derbent for more than 40 years.
A screengrab taken from a video released on June 23, 2024, showing an area sealed off by police following deadly attacks in Russia's North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
PHOTO: AFP
Six of the gunmen were shot and killed as the incidents unfolded, Mr Melikov said. Russian cited the National Anti-Terrorist Committee as saying that five of the gunmen had been killed.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports on how many people or gunmen were killed in the attacks.
June 24 to 26 have been declared days of mourning in Dagestan, Mr Melikov said, with flags lowered to half-staff and all entertainment events cancelled.
The restive region was in the 2000s hit by an Islamist insurgency spilling over from neighbouring Chechnya, with Russian security forces moving aggressively to combat extremists in the region. In recent years, attacks had become rarer, with Russia’s Federal Security Service saying in 2017 that it had defeated the insurgency in the region.
State news agencies reported exchanges of gunfire in the centre of Makhachkala. They cited the Interior Ministry as saying that exits from the Caspian Sea port of around 600,000 residents had been closed, and that conspirators who were still at large may yet attempt to flee the city.
About 125km south of Makhachkala, gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church in Derbent, home to an ancient Jewish community and a Unesco World Heritage site. The authorities were quoted as saying that both the synagogue and church were ablaze, and that two attackers had been killed.
Russian media cited the head of the country’s federation of Jewish communities as calling for people to avoid reacting to “provocations”.
In Israel, the Foreign Ministry said the synagogue in Derbent had been burned to the ground and shots had been fired at a second synagogue in Makhachkala. Its statement said it was believed that there were no worshippers in the synagogue at the time.
The Russian authorities have pointed to militant Muslim elements in previous incidents in the region.
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West and Ukraine of stirring up unrest inside Russia in connection with the incident. REUTERS
