Synagogue, churches targeted in ‘Islamic attack’ in Russia’s Dagestan

Gunmen have killed at least 19 people in attacks on a synagogue, police station and two churches in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

A fire engulfs a building after the deadly Dagestan attacks. Picture: X

Gunmen have killed at least 19 people in attacks on a synagogue, police station and two churches in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, the latest ­incidents in a trend of rising violence across the country.

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said terrorists with automatic rifles opened fire in Dagestan’s capital of Makhachkala and the city of Derbent, in apparently co-ordinated attacks. Russian authorities said the attacks were carried out by followers of an international terrorist organisation, without giving further details. Seven of the dead were police officers.

Dagestan Governor Sergei ­Melikov called for calm as a manhunt unfolded on Sunday evening (Monday AEST). Four gunmen were later killed in a shootout with police. “Panic and fear is what these non-humans were banking on first and foremost,” Mr Melikov said on social media. “They won’t get that from Dagestanis!”

The attacks raise concern about the vulnerability of Russia’s internal security as critics have blamed authorities for diverting resources towards cracking down on political dissent at the expense of targeting homegrown terrorist threats.

Senior Russian officials have accused Ukraine and the West of trying to foment instability inside the country.

Gunmen with assault rifles on the streets of Dagestan’s capital of Makhachkala in this scene from a video. Picture: X

Video shared on social media from Makhachkala showed a police vehicle on fire and smoke rising from what witnesses said was the synagogue in Derbent. Local media reported half the synagogue was seriously damaged by the fire.

Gunmen also opened fire on a police car in the village of Sergokala, south of Makhachkala. Some of the assailants attempted to flee by car, police said. Thirteen police ­officers and three civilians were taken to hospital. In Makhachkala, a Russian Orthodox priest was killed, and the attackers also killed a security guard.

The Russian Jewish Congress said the Derbent synagogue was attacked about 40 minutes before evening prayers. Gunmen fired at police and security guards and threw in molotov cocktails, it said, adding that the attack in Makhachkala was similar.

Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church and a fervent supporter of the Kremlin, said the “enemy” was seeking to destroy “inter-religious peace” in Russia, without naming who was responsible.

Russia has a long and bloody experience with terrorist attacks, most of them in the wake of the Kremlin’s two wars with separatists in Chechnya, the Muslim-­majority region in the North Caucasus. Sunday’s attack underscores the country’s continued vulnerability to interethnic and ­religious violence.

Soldiers at the scene of one of the attacks. Picture: Gyanzhevi Gadzhibalayev/TASS/Zuma Press

Dagestan, also Muslim-maj­ority, in particular has been the site of several bombings and other attacks over the years, which Moscow has blamed on militant Islamic fighters.

Many of the homegrown ­extremists who threatened Moscow left the country in the mid-2010s to join Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But one branch of Islamic State that has been revived and found sanctuary in Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan, has launched new attacks on Russia. In March, the group carried out a deadly attack at a Moscow concert hall, killing more than 140 people and wounding hundreds more.

Last week, Russia said its security forces stormed a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and killed six men linked to Islamic State who had taken two guards hostage.

Dagestan and the broader North Caucasus region have also seen a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since the start of the Israel-Gaza war in October. Weeks after the Hamas attacks, a mob stormed Makhachkala airport in anticipation of a flight arriving from ­Israel. Hundreds of people, some chanting anti-Semitic slogans and waving Palestinian flags, rushed onto the landing field to seek passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv.

Muslim leaders in Dagestan condemned the incident and the Israeli government demanded that Russia protect Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they are.

Following Sunday’s attacks, the president of the Jewish Communities of Russia, Rabbi Alexander Boroda, called on the country’s Jewish communities to remain calm.

Russia’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Tatyana Moskalkova, said the attacks had been orchestrated to incite inter-ethnic and religious hatred. “I hope that the terrorists will get the punishment they deserve, ” she said.

The Wall Street Journal