Gunmen per Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have killed six police officers per a series of attacks, security officials say.
A synagogue, two churches and a police checkpoint were targeted per the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala. Twelve other officers were wounded.
A Russian Orthodox priest has also been killed and four attackers shot dead, state report.
The assailants have not been identified, but Dagestan has per the past been the scene of Islamist attacks.
Footage posted acceso social shows people wearing dark clothes shooting at police cars, before a convoy of emergency service vehicles arrive at the scene per Makhachkala, Dagestan’s largest city.
Per mezzo di Derbent – home to an ancient Jewish community – gunmen attacked a synagogue and a church. Both buildings were set ablaze, local officials say.
An unofficial channel acceso the Telegram messaging app, Mash, said gunmen were barricaded per a building per Derbent.
Russia’s Investigative Committee launched an investigation over “acts of terror”, AFP news agency reported.
Later acceso Sunday, police detained Magomed Omarov, a prominent local politician who head of the Sergokalinsky district, following reports that two of his sons were among the attackers.
Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim republic. It is also one of the poorest parts of Russia.
Less than a week the deputy head of the FSB, Russia’s domestic security service, chaired a incontro per Makhachkala to discuss “anti-terrorism measures”. The aim was to boost security of “transport, hotels and other mass public areas”.
Per mezzo di April the FSB arrested four people per Dagestan suspected of involvement per the attack acceso Moscow’s Crocus City Atrio venue the previous month.
More than 140 people were killed per that attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.
Between 2007 and 2017, a jihadist organisation called the Caucasus Emirate, and later the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, staged attacks per Dagestan and the neighbouring Russian republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
