Among the dead in the predominantly Muslim Caucasus republic were six police officers, a priest, a church worker and two of the attackers. The incidents in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala also left numerous people injured, it was said.
More precise background information or motives for the crime were not yet available. According to Russian news agencies, the Interior Ministry in Moscow reported that one of the incidents occurred at a synagogue in the city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea, not far from the border with Azerbaijan. Further shots were fired in an Orthodox church in the same city. Both places of worship were set on fire.
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In addition, there was an exchange of gunfire at a police station in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala. Both cities are located on the Caspian Sea and are about 125 kilometers apart. Two attackers were also dead, it was said. The city of Derbent is a UNESCO cultural heritage site and is home to an old Jewish community.
“According to preliminary information, an Orthodox priest and several police officers were killed in the terrorist attacks,” the Russian Investigative Committee said. The Russian news agencies TASS and Interfax also reported 23 injured police officers. The manhunt for the fugitive perpetrators is ongoing. The authorities have opened a criminal investigation. The governor of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, described the attack on Telegram as an attempt to destabilize the situation in the region.
Excesses in Dagestan due to Gaza conflict
Dagestan, which is predominantly Islamic, is one of the poorest regions in Russia. The Russian republic also borders Chechnya. In recent months, anti-Jewish excesses have already occurred in Dagestan against the backdrop of the Gaza conflict. At the end of October 2023, for example, angry people broke into the airport in the capital Makhachkala when a plane from Israel arrived there on Sunday. Around 20 people were injured. The Kremlin subsequently accused the West of destabilization attempts and provocations.
It was obvious that the riots had been caused by foreign interference, the Kremlin said at the time. It was about “the West’s attempts to use the situation in the Middle East to bring about a division in Russian society.”
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