A terrorist attack against churches and synagogue with dozens killed and injured in Derbent in Dagestan in southern Russia, the proportions of which are not yet clear. Among the victims there are at least 15 police officers and an Orthodox priest who allegedly had his throat cut. Six attackers were killed by the police. At least 25 injured. The authorities specify that among the civilians killed in the attack there was also “Father Nikolaj, who served for more than forty years in the Orthodox church of Derbent. More than fifteen officers were killed while protecting the peace and tranquility of the southern Russian republic, Governor Sergey Melikov said in a video posted on Telegram.
Islamic matrix – The hypothesis is that it was the Wilayat Kavkaz group, the North Caucasus branch of the Islamic State, which led “the coordinated attack against churches, synagogues and police facilities in the Republic of Dagestan on June 23” according to the US think tank ISW. “IS-K’s Russian branch ‘Al-Azaim Media published a statement on June 23 following the attack praising “their brothers from the Caucasus” for demonstrating their capabilities,” ISW writes. “Al-Azaim did not claim responsibility for the attack itself” but “the reference to the Caucasus strongly suggests that Wilayat Kavkaz is responsible for the attack,” the think tank claims. “The regional counter-terrorism structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) warned that Wilayat Kavkaz has become more active following the attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on March 22 and has intensified recruitment calls in the North Caucasus from ‘April 2024″.
“Operation completed” – The information center of the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) reports that the anti-terrorism operation in Dagestan has ended. This was announced by the Tass agency. “Connected with the elimination of threats to the life and health of citizens, the decision was made to end the counter-terrorism operation” this morning, authorities said. “The legal regime of the anti-terrorist operation within the administrative borders of Makhachkala and Derbent of the Republic of Dagestan have been canceled,” the message reads.
The reconstruction – On Sunday around 6pm a group of armed men opened fire on a synagogue, a church and, immediately afterwards, a traffic police station between Derbent and Makhachkala. After the attack, the terrorists set fire to the two places of worship and throughout the area the anti-terrorism teams launched a manhunt to stop the attackers.
Israel also immediately followed the whole affair with great concern: the Israeli embassy in Moscow – the Foreign Ministry of Tel Aviv said – immediately contacted the leaders of the Jewish community in the Derbent district. According to Israeli sources, “as far as is known, there were no believers in the synagogue at the time of the attack.” Already last October 28, this Muslim-majority Republic was the scene of an openly anti-Semitic act: at the airport of the capital, Makhatchakala, dozens of people stormed the runway and the terminal after it was announced that a plane had landed coming from Israel, shouting ‘Allah u Akbar’, in what seemed to everyone to be a real manhunt, with sinister echoes of a pogrom.
The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill called for the repression of any attempt at inter-ethnic hostility and radicalization of religions. “I am convinced that everything possible must be done to exclude the very possibility of attempts to radicalize religious life, to stop any manifestation of extremism and inter-ethnic hostility in any form, even in everyday life, because the present and the the future of our country depends largely on this”, his words reported by Ria Novosti.
