(Moscow) Armed men attacked a synagogue and churches on Sunday, killing a priest and six police officers in the Russian Caucasus, authorities said, denouncing “terrorist” acts.
The attacks took place in the capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, Makhachkala, and the coastal city of Derbent.
They targeted “two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police checkpoint,” the Russian Anti-Terrorism Committee announced, quoted by the Ria-Novosti agency.
“According to initial reports, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church and police officers were killed in these terrorist attacks,” he continues.
In total, six police officers were killed and twelve injured in the attacks, said the spokesperson for the Dagestan Interior Ministry, Gaïana Garïeva.
The 66-year-old priest was killed in Derbent, she said.
The Russian Investigative Committee said it had opened a criminal investigation into “terrorist acts”, without further details.
Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim Russian region neighboring Chechnya, also close to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Anti-terrorist operations are regularly announced there by the Russian authorities.
For his part, the chairman of the public council of Jewish communities of the Russian Federation, Boruch Gorin, declared on Telegram that “the synagogue in Derbent is on fire.”
“It is not possible to put out the fire. Two people were killed: a police officer and a security guard,” he adds.
He also assured that the “synagogue in Makhachkala was set on fire and burned down.”
Dagestan leader Sergei Melikov wrote on Telegram: “Tonight in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown people tried to destabilize society.”
In October, anti-Israel riots broke out at Makhachkala airport.
A crowd of men had invaded its tarmac, amid tensions across the world linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, when a plane from Israel landed.
Russia has been targeted on multiple occasions by attacks and attacks claimed by the jihadist organization Islamic State (IS), even if its influence remains limited in the country.
In March, an attack claimed by ISIS at Crocus City Hall in a Moscow suburb killed more than 140 people.
Last weekend, several ISIS members were killed after taking two prison officers hostage in a prison in southern Russia, authorities said.
Russia faced an Islamist rebellion in the early 2000s in the Caucasus, a movement born from the first conflict against separatist Chechnya in 1994-96. It was defeated by Russian federal forces and in recent years, armed incidents have been rare there.
Nearly 4,500 Russians, particularly from the Caucasus, fought alongside IS in Iraq and Syria, according to official figures.