Dead in Dagestan

Gunmen attack synagogue and church

The police engaged in fierce exchanges of fire with the attackers.

(Bild: Screenshot Twitter)

Gunmen fired on a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police station in the Russian North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday. At least ten people - including police officers, an Orthodox priest and a church employee - were killed in the attacks. Numerous others were injured.

According to Russian news agencies, the Interior Ministry in Moscow reported that one of the incidents took place at a synagogue in the city of Derbent on the Caspian Sea, not far from the border with Azerbaijan. Further shots were fired at an Orthodox church in the same city. Both places of worship were also set on fire. There was also an exchange of fire outside a police station in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala.

Two attackers are also said to have been killed. The background is still unclear. A search is underway for other assailants. The city of Derbent is a UNESCO cultural heritage site and is home to an old Jewish community. Makhachkala lies around 125 kilometers to the north on the coast of the Caspian Sea. 

Anti-Jewish excesses due to the Gaza war
Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim region in the south of Russia. Anti-Jewish excesses have already occurred there in recent months against the backdrop of the Gaza conflict. At the end of October 2023, for example, angry people invaded the airport in the capital Makhachkala when a plane from Israel arrived there on Sunday. Around 20 people were injured. The Kremlin subsequently accused the West of destabilization attempts and provocations. 

It was obvious that the riots were caused by interference from abroad, the Kremlin said at the time. It was about "the West's attempts to use the situation in the Middle East to divide Russian society".