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54 I Eastern Europe bne July 2024
At least 15 policemen are dead and over 20have been wounded in a terrorist attack in Russia's southern region of Dagestan. / bne IntelliNews
Dagestan rocked by a series of terrorist attacks
bne IntelliNews
The Russian region of Dagestan has been rocked by a series of shooting incidents that have left more than 15 policemen and two assailants dead, the region’s interior ministry said, as well as a Russian orthodox priest who had his throat cut according to several reports. Attacks were mounted on sites including a synagogue and two churches.
“According to the information I received, Father Nikolai was killed in a church in Derbent, his throat was cut. He was 66 years old and very ill. Security guard Mikhail in the Makhachkala-1 church, armed only with a gas pistol, was shot. The priests locked themselves in the church, waiting for help,” the chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission of Dagestan, Shamil Khadulaev, said in
a post on social media.
www.bne.eu
A second shooting incident reportedly broke out at 8pm local time and all roads into and out of the seaside town of Derbent where the shootings happened have been closed as the Rosgvardia national internal security troops arrive in the city to bring order.
"Six gunmen were killed. Further operative and search and investigative action will continue until detecting all the participants of sleeper cells, which were definitely prepared in particular
from abroad," head of the region Sergey Melikov said.
The governor said a total of six “bandits” had been “liquidated.”
Video posted on social media by the authorities show several men clad
in black and bullet proof vests firing machine guns at police at 6pm local time. Another video showed at least two of the assailants apparently dead on the road, while separate video showed
“Dagestan has seen occasional violence, but it never suffered from the full-scale Islamic revolt that led to two secessionist wars in neighbouring Chechnya in the 1990s.”