Synagogue and church attacks in Dagestan, Russia, kill police officers | News

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Gunmen opened fire on a synagogue and a church in Derbent, as well as a police station in Makhachkala.

Gunmen killed at least five police officers during what appear to be coordinated attacks on a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police station in the Russian republic of Dagestan, Dagestan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

Nine people were injured in the attacks, which took place in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on Sunday night.

Both the synagogue and the church are located in Derbent, which is home to an ancient Jewish community in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region. The attack on the police station took place in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, approximately 125 kilometers (75 miles) away.

The synagogue in Derbent was set on fire as a result of the attack, local officials told Reuters news agency, while eyewitnesses also reported smoke rising from the church.

Two of the attackers were shot dead, according to Russian news agencies citing the country’s Interior Ministry.

The attackers in Derbent had previously been seen fleeing in a car.

“Tonight, in Derbent and Makhachkala, unknown people made attempts to destabilize the public situation,” said the Head of the Republic of Dagestan Sergei Melikov. “The Dagestan police officers got in the way. According to preliminary information, there are victims among them. All services are acting in accordance with instructions… The identities of the attackers are being established.”

Daniel Hawkins, reporting for Al Jazeera from Moscow, said there were also reports that a priest at the church had been killed.

Dagestan has seen separatist violence in the 1990s and early 2000s, Hawkins explained.

“The violence there, over the years, has decreased,” Hawkins said, explaining that the region has never seen the kind of conflict that engulfed the neighboring Russian republic of Chechnya, which saw Russian forces and separatists fight two brutal wars during the same period.

“This type of coordinated attack targeting civilian religious infrastructure is very unusual and will undoubtedly be shocking to Russians across the country,” Hawkins added.