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Unknown Gunmen Kill 6 Police Officers, Priest In Separate Attacks In Daghestan

By RFE/RL's Russian Service June 23, 2024

At least six police officers were killed on June 23 when gunmen opened fire at a synagogue, an Orthodox church, and a police station in separate attacks in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala in Russia's North Caucasus region of Daghestan, Russian officials and news reports said.

Interfax quotes the press service of Daghestan's Interior Ministry as saying on Telegram that six police officers were killed and 12 wounded in the attacks.

A spokeswoman for the ministry, Gayana Gariyeva, told the RIA Novosti news agency that a 66-year-old priest was also killed in Derbent.

"This evening in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala armed attacks were carried out on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue, and a police checkpoint," said the National Anti-Terrorism Committee in a statement to RIA Novosti.

"As a result of the terrorist attacks, according to preliminary information, a priest from the Russian Orthodox Church and police officers were killed."

According to a local religious organization in the majority Muslim region, a total of nine people were killed, seven of them were police officers, and another 25 people were injured.

"Law enforcement officers, clergy, and ordinary citizens became victims of monstrous terrorist attacks," the organization said on Telegram.

The organization noted that the attacks occurred on a religious holiday in the Russian Orthodox Church.

"The radicals want to pit us against each other with all their might and burn interfaith bridges. But they won't succeed," the organization said.

Daghestani Governor Sergei Melikov also said the attack was an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region.

"This evening in Derbent and Makhachkala unknown [attackers] made attempts to destabilize the situation in society," Melikov said on Telegram. "They were confronted by Dagestani police officers."

The Interior Ministry was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying four gunmen had been shot dead as the incidents unfolded. A local official said another had been killed during a shootout at a church in Makhachkala.

The chairman of the public council of Russia's Federation of Jewish Communities, Boruch Gorin, said on Telegram that the synagogue in Derbent fire after the attack.

"It has not been possible to extinguish the fire. Two are killed: a policeman and a security guard," Gorin said.

Russia's National Anti-terrorism Committee said later on June 23 that the "active phase" of its operation against the gunmen had ended in Derbent, but the standoff continued in Makhachkala.

Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened criminal probes into "acts of terror."

All security forces have been alerted, said Akhmed Kuliyev, acting mayor of Derbent, which is home to an ancient Jewish community and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The attack on the police station occurred in Makhachkala, the capital of Daghestan, 125 kilometers north of Derbent.

Unknown assailants attacked a traffic police post, according to Russian news reports. Two assailants were killed in Makhachkala, the Interior Ministry of Daghestan said.

The Russian agencies also reported that street fights were ongoing in Makhachkala, whose airport in October was shut down for several days when a mob shouting anti-Jewish epithets stormed it after the arrival of a flight from Israel.

Anti-Jewish protests broke out in several cities in the region after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU.

Months later after the March 22 massacre at the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow that killed 144 people, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) detained four people in Daghestan suspected of providing financing and weapons to participants.

Responsibility for that attack was claimed by an offshoot of Islamic State known as Islamic State-Khorasan. Russian investigators said the assault was carried out by four men, all Tajik nationals. Russian authorities arrested 11 Tajik citizens and a Kyrgyzstan-born Russian citizen in connection with the attack, Russia's worst terrorist attack in two decades.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/daghestan-synagogue-church- shooting-derbent-makhachkala/33005911.html

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.