Another Terrorist Attack: 19 Killed in Russian Dagestan As Militant Attack on Orthodox Church and Synagogue

In Russia's southern Republic of Dagestan on Sunday, armed militants killed more than 15 police officers and several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, AP reports. 

Security forces have identified three of the killed terrorists as participants in the attacks in Makhachkala. They were the two sons and nephew of Magomed Omarov, the head of the Sergokalinsky district of Dagestan, in the administrative centre of which the shooting also took place.

According to local authorities, a group of armed men opened fire on a synagogue and a church in the city of Derbent, located on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Both the church and the synagogue caught fire. Almost simultaneously, there were reports of an attack on a church and a traffic police post in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala.

Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim Russian region neighbouring Chechnya and close to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Russian authorities regularly declare anti-terrorist operations there.

Jewish representatives, including the Russian Jewish Congress, said a second synagogue was also attacked.

In Derbent, a 66-year-old priest of the Russian Orthodox Church was killed, local authorities said.

Armed men also opened fire on a car carrying police officers, wounding one in Sergokal, a village between Makhachkala and Derbent.

There is no evidence to determine the motives or identity of the perpetrators of these attacks, which appear to have been coordinated.

The Russian anti-terrorist committee announced in the evening that the "active phase" of the anti-terrorist operation in Derbent had ended and that two attackers had been killed.

Local law enforcement also reported that they had "eliminated four attackers in Makhachkala".

Later, Dagestan State Duma deputy Abdulhakim Gadzhiyev said that the special services of Ukraine and NATO countries were behind the terrorist attack in the republic.

This is not the first time that Russia has baselessly accused Ukraine and Western countries of their own internal problems with terrorists. 

In March, a large-scale terrorist attack took place in a shopping centre near Moscow during a concert. Armed men broke into the rock concert, killing at least 90 people and injuring more than 100. Russian authorities immediately blamed Ukraine for the attack. 

However, immediately after the attack, the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. US officials confirmed this claim. Only a few days later, Russian officials stopped their manipulative public accusations against Ukraine, with which Russia itself began a full-scale war with the invasion and occupation of territories in February 2024.