Russian official says death toll in attacks on synagogues and churches rises to 20, citing Islamist ‘sleeper cells’

A Russian officials Islamist “sleeper cells” were pointed to after gunmen carried out coordinated attacks on Jewish places of worship and churches in two cities in southern Dagestan on Sunday, killing at least 20 people.

The violence in Dagestan’s regional capital Makhachkala and nearby Derbent on Sunday was the latest incident blamed by authorities on Islamist extremists in the mainly Muslim region of the North Caucasus, as well as the deadliest in Russia since March, when gunmen opened fire at a concert in suburban Moscow, killing 145 people. The Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the March attack. Crocus City The concert hall praised the attack in Dagestan, saying it was carried out by “brothers from the Caucasus who have shown they are still strong.”

Dagestan Governor Sergei Melnikov, chosen by Russian President Vladimir Putin to lead the region, blamed members of Islamist “sleeper cells” directed from abroad, but gave no other details. He said in a video statement that the attackers’ goal was to “spread terror and fear,” and attempted to link the attack to Moscow’s military action in Ukraine — but also offered no evidence.

Putin had tried to blame Ukraine for the attack in March, still without evidence and despite an Islamic State affiliate claiming responsibility. Kiev has denied any involvement.

Russia launches terrorism investigation after attacks on synagogues and Orthodox churches; clergy and police officers killed

At least 15 of the 20 people killed in armed attacks in Derbent and Makhachkala on Sunday were policemen, according to the latest data released by Russian authorities on Monday.

Medical officials in Dagestan said at least 46 people were injured. At least 13 of them were policemen, four of whom were hospitalized in serious condition.

The dead included the Reverend Nikolai Kotelnikov, a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest at a church in Derbent. The attackers slit his throat before setting the church on fire, according to Shamil Khadulaev, deputy head of the local public oversight body. The attack came as Orthodox worshippers were celebrating Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday.

The Kele-Numaz synagogue in Derbent was also set on fire.

Shortly after the attacks in Derbent, militants opened fire on a police checkpoint in Makhachkala and attacked a Russian Orthodox church and a synagogue there before being tracked down and killed by special forces, the Associated Press reported. The Investigative Committee, the country’s top state criminal investigation agency, launched a terrorism probe and said all five attackers were killed.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned earlier this month of an increased terror threat following the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel, warning that there was “the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, not dissimilar to our campaign against Israel.” ISIS-K attack We saw it in March at the Russian Concert Hall.”

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, former CIA deputy director Mike Morell said, “… A recent editorial warned Responding to a question about the terror threat posed by vulnerabilities at the U.S.-Mexico border, he did not speak specifically about the attacks in Russia but said the Biden administration and Congress “lack a sense of urgency” in responding to intelligence gaps that have hampered efforts to properly vet illegal immigrants.

“There needs to be immediate action on this,” Morell said. “And I think the American public needs to understand what the threat is. That’s why we’ve called for a public congressional hearing on terrorist threats to the homeland. Well, not a hearing on the broad threats, but on the threats to the homeland. And then we need to hear what the administration is doing about this in a broad sense, right. Not the details, but in a broad sense.”

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The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War argued that the Islamic State group’s North Caucasus branch, Wilayat Kavkaz, was likely behind Sunday’s attack, describing it as “complex and coordinated.”

Russian news reports said the attackers included two sons and a nephew of Magomed Omarov, the head of the Dagestan regional branch of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. Omarov was detained by police for questioning and was immediately removed from his positions by United Russia. Russian state news agencies reported that Melikov later said Omarov had been removed from his post.

In the early 2000s, there were almost daily attacks on police and other officials in Dagestan, blamed on far-right extremists. After the Islamic State group emerged, many of the region’s residents joined it in Syria and Iraq. Violence in Dagestan has eased in recent years, but in a sign that extremist sentiments are still high in the region, a mob at an airport there in October targeted an incoming flight from Israel. More than 20 people were injured – none of them Israeli – when hundreds of people, some carrying banners with anti-Semitic slogans, stormed the terminal, chasing passengers and throwing stones at police.

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Following the attack on a Moscow concert hall in March, Russia’s top security agency said it had dismantled a “terrorist cell” in southern Russia and arrested four of its members who had provided weapons and cash to the suspected attackers in Moscow.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.