Dagestan is in mourning after attacks kill 19 people : NPR

MOSCOW — Russia’s southern area of Dagestan held the primary of three days of mourning Monday following a rampage by Islamic militants who killed 19 folks, most of them police, and attacked homes of worship in apparently coordinated assaults in two cities.

Sunday’s violence in Dagestan’s regional capital of Makhachkala and close by Derbent was the newest that officers blamed on Islamic extremists within the predominantly Muslim area within the North Caucasus, in addition to the deadliest in Russia since March, when gunmen opened hearth at a live performance in suburban Moscow, killing 145 folks.

The affiliate of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan that claimed accountability for March’s raid rapidly praised the assault in Dagestan, saying it was performed by “brothers within the Caucasus who confirmed that they’re nonetheless sturdy.”

The Washington-based Institute for the Research of Struggle argued that the Islamic State group’s North Caucasus department, Vilayat Kavkaz, doubtless was behind the assault, describing it as “advanced and coordinated.”

Dagestan Gov. Sergei Melikov blamed members of Islamic “sleeper cells” directed from overseas, however did not give another particulars. He mentioned in a video assertion that the assailants aimed toward “sowing panic and concern,” and tried to hyperlink the assault to Moscow’s army motion in Ukraine — but additionally supplied no proof.

President Vladimir Putin had sought in charge the March assault on Ukraine, once more with out proof and regardless of the declare of accountability by the Islamic State affiliate. Kyiv has vehemently denied any involvement.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned Putin has acquired stories on Sunday’s assaults and efforts to assist the victims.

The Investigative Committee, the nation’s high state felony investigation company, mentioned all 5 attackers have been killed. Of the 19 folks killed, 15 have been police.

Among the many lifeless was the Rev. Nikolai Kotelnikov, a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest at a church in Derbent. The attackers slit his throat earlier than setting hearth to the church, in accordance with Shamil Khadulayev, deputy head of an area public oversight physique. The assault got here because the Orthodox devoted celebrated Pentecost, also called Trinity Sunday.

The Kele-Numaz synagogue in Derbent additionally was set ablaze.

Shortly after the assaults in Derbent, militants fired at a police submit in Makhachkala and attacked a Russian Orthodox Church and a synagogue there earlier than being hunted down and killed by particular forces.

Medical authorities in Dagestan mentioned 16 folks, together with 13 police, have been hospitalized with accidents, and with 4 officers in grave situation.

Russian information stories mentioned the attackers included the 2 sons and a nephew of Magomed Omarov, the top of the principle Kremlin’s social gathering United Russia’s regional department in Dagestan. Omarov was detained by police for interrogation, and United Russia rapidly dismissed him from its ranks.

Within the early 2000s, Dagestan noticed near-daily assaults on police and different authorities that was blamed on militant extremists. After the emergence of the Islamic State group, many residents of the area joined it in Syria and Iraq.

The violence in Dagestan has abated in recent times, however in an indication that extremist sentiments nonetheless run excessive within the area, mobs rioted at an airport there in October, focusing on a flight from Israel. Greater than 20 folks have been damage — none of them Israelis — when lots of of males, some carrying banners with antisemitic slogans, rushed onto the tarmac, chased passengers and threw stones at police.

The airport rampage challenged the Kremlin’s narrative that ethnic and non secular teams coexist in concord in Russia.

After March’s Moscow live performance corridor assault, Russia’s high safety company reported that it had damaged up what it referred to as a “terrorist cell” in southern Russia and arrested 4 of its members who had supplied weapons and money to suspected attackers in Moscow.

Harold Chambers, political and safety analyst specializing within the North Caucasus, famous the authorities’ response to Sunday’s assault “was considerably greater than now we have seen previously, however nonetheless missing, notably with response time.”

“They have been positively caught off guard by this assault,” he mentioned. “What we’re seeing right here continues to be this disconnect between Russian counterterrorism functionality and what the terrorists functionality is inside Russia.”