EXPLAINER
Policemen and civilians had been killed in a sequence of ‘terrorist assaults’ in Dagestan’s Makhachkala and Derbent.
No less than 19 individuals had been killed after armed males attacked a synagogue, church buildings and police put up in Russia’s Dagestan area on Sunday.
The area has introduced three days of mourning beginning Monday.
Right here’s what we all know in regards to the assaults in Dagestan and why they’ve brought about concern in Russia.
What occurred in Dagestan and when?
- Shortly earlier than 6pm native time (15:00 GMT) on Sunday, some attackers used computerized weapons to assault a synagogue and an Orthodox church in Derbent metropolis, Dagestan’s inside ministry stated.
- Derbent is residence to an historic Jewish group within the primarily Muslim area.
- The inside ministry stated gunmen concurrently attacked a visitors police put up in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, about 125 km (75 miles) north of Derbent.
- The attackers and legislation enforcement officers exchanged gunfire. Heavy capturing was reported on the Russian Orthodox Assumption Cathedral in Makhachkala.
- Russia’s Nationwide Antiterrorism Committee stated a counterterrorism operation was launched in Dagestan at 8:15am (05:15 GMT) on Monday. It was declared over quickly after. Throughout such operations, authorities can prohibit individuals’s motion and communications.
- The assaults come three months after at the very least 133 individuals had been killed in an assault on a live performance in Moscow’s Crocus Metropolis Corridor. Whereas the Afghanistan-based Islamic State in Khorasan Province, ISKP (ISIS-Okay), claimed accountability for the worst assault to hit Russia in years, Moscow claimed with out proof that Ukraine had a task.
The place is Dagestan on the map?
- Dagestan, formally often known as the Republic of Dagestan, is in southwestern Russia. It’s positioned within the North Caucasus, alongside the Caspian Sea.
- Its largest metropolis and capital Makhachkala is 1,588km (986 miles) southeast of Moscow.
What do we all know in regards to the victims of the synagogue assault?
- Russian authorities stated on Monday that 19 individuals, together with 15 cops and 4 civilians, had been killed.
- Sergei Melikov, the pinnacle of the Dagestan area, stated the civilians killed included an Orthodox priest, Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had labored for greater than 40 years on the church in Derbent.
- Greater than a dozen individuals are within the hospital after sustaining accidents within the assault, Al Jazeera’s Daniel Hawkins reported from Moscow.
What’s the importance of Dagestan?
- Dagestan, with a majority Muslim inhabitants, is residence to greater than 50 completely different ethnicities. Additionally it is often known as “the Mountain of Languages” or “Mountain of Nationalities”.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has lengthy held the North Caucasus area up as a poster youngster of integration and loyalty to the Russian state.
- This was evident when the Kremlin selected Dagestan for its first Putin picture op following former Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed coup try final 12 months. In Dagestan, Putin was seen mingling with locals, taking pictures, in an obvious present of confidence.
- Dagestan additionally borders Chechnya, which has lengthy been residence to a simmering secessionist motion that Russia tried to crush by means of two wars — between 1994 and 1996, after which between 1999 and 2009.
- These tensions in Chechnya have at occasions spilled over into Dagestan. In 1999, a Chechnya-based armed group entered Dagestan with greater than 1,000 fighters, evoking a Russian army response. After greater than a month of combating, Russia recaptured all components of the area.
- Extra just lately, Russia’s Federal Safety Service arrested 4 individuals in Dagestan over Moscow’s Crocus Metropolis Corridor assaults, pointing to Russian issues over separatism within the area.
- Amid Israel’s struggle on Gaza, Dagestan additionally made international headlines when on October 29, 2023, a crowd stormed Makhachkala airport to protest in opposition to the touchdown of a flight from Israel’s Tel Aviv. The group chanted anti-Israel slogans. This prompted the short-term closure of the airport. No less than 60 individuals had been arrested. Russia blamed Ukraine and the West for the airport unrest.
Who carried out the Dagestan assault?
- No group has claimed accountability for the assault but.
- However some consultants imagine {that a} hyperlink between the attackers and the ISIL/ISIS armed group can’t be dominated out.
- “It’s potential and doubtless extremely probably that there’s a reference to ISIS teams as a result of as we all know ISIS has a form of a community. It isn’t a hierarchical construction. Individuals who affiliate themselves with ISIS can perform these sorts of assaults,” Domitilla Sagramoso, lecturer in Safety and Growth on the Division of Struggle Research, King’s Faculty London, advised Al Jazeera.
- “I feel what makes it probably that there’s an ISIS connection is the sorts of targets: Orthodox church buildings, synagogues,” Sagramoso added.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Putin had acquired reviews on Sunday’s assaults.
- Russia’s Investigative Committee, the nation’s prime state felony investigation company, stated all 5 attackers had been killed.
- “We perceive who’s behind the organisation of the terrorist assaults and what purpose they pursued,” Melikov, the Dagestan chief, stated, including that overseas forces had been concerned in making ready the assault, with out sharing any particulars. “That is an try to cleave aside our unity.”
How has the Russian authorities responded?
- Russia’s Nationwide Antiterrorism Committee described the assaults as terrorist acts.
- Putin has not but commented on the assaults.
- The Dagestan area has declared three days of mourning within the area.