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THREE DAYS OF mourning began today in Russia’s southern Republic of Dagestan after gunmen launched a series of attacks against churches and synagogues last night, resulting in shootouts with police that left at least 15 officers and four civilians dead, including an Orthodox priest.
Russian authorities said that five assailants had been “liquidated”.
“As a result of the terrorist attack that took place yesterday in Makhachkala and Derbent, 46 people were injured, among them civilians and law enforcement officials,” Dagestan’s health minister Tatyana Belyayeva said.
“Unfortunately, 20 people had been killed,” she added, updating a previous toll of 19 without specifying if the 20th person was a civilian or police officer.
It remains unclear just how many people were involved in the attacks, which came just three months after members of Islamic State (IS) killed more than 140 people in a massacre at a concert hall in Moscow.
Two Orthodox churches, two synagogues and a police checkpoint were attacked, according to officials and the Russian Jewish Congress.
Among the dead was the Rev Nikolai Kotelnikov, a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest at a church in Derbent. The attackers slit his throat before setting fire to the church, according to Shamil Khadulayev, deputy head of a local public oversight body.
The attack came as the Orthodox faithful celebrated Pentecost, also known as Trinity Sunday.
The Kele-Numaz synagogue in Derbent was also set ablaze.
Shortly after the attacks in Derbent, militants fired at a police post in Makhachkala and attacked a Russian Orthodox Church and a synagogue there before being hunted down and killed by special forces.
Sunday’s violence in Dagestan’s regional capital of Makhachkala and nearby Derbent has been blamed on Islamic extremists by Russian authorities. The Caucasus area is predominantly Muslim.
The affiliate of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for March’s massacre quickly praised the attacks in Dagestan, saying they were conducted by “brothers in the Caucasus who showed that they are still strong”.
The attacks on Sunday also had echoes of the kind of insurgent violence that plagued the North Caucasus during the 1990s and 2000s but the Kremlin has today dismissed fears of a renewed wave of attacks.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “No. Now there is a different Russia. Society is consolidated and such terrorist manifestations are not supported by society in Russia or in Dagestan.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched criminal probes over “acts of terror”, while Dagestan Governor Sergei Melikov called the attacks an attempt to “destabilise” his region.
“We know who is behind these terrorist attacks and what objective they are pursuing,” he added, without providing specific details but making references to the conflict in Ukraine.
“We must understand that war comes to our homes too. We felt it but today we face it,” he said.
Russia has been a target for attacks in recent years by IS, which opposes Moscow’s military support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and claims to have set up a “franchise” in Russia’s North Caucasus.
With reporting from AFP and Press Association
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Its obvious whats going on. Kenny needs full control of the terms of reference and scope of the inquiry to ensure FG (who are up to their necks in it as well) and their cronies can’t be called in front of the committee for scrutiny. It will purely be a ‘what FF did’ re-election tool in the run up to the next election, all funded by the taxpayer.
It is simply stunning that this mouthpiece and prominent Apologist / Member of FG , is given the opportunity every week to espouse this inaccurate Fascism Speak on The Journal.ie .
I have no problem with right to make a point – but please keep the articles accurate to basic facts please .
The Banking Enquiry lost its Democratic teeth , when it’s mandate was undermined by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his undemocratic Dictatorship .
As a result , it will come to zero – for that reason alone !
Correct.
endas been hiding in the dail since 1975, I don’t think he realises that people are no longer being spoonfed the news by RTE and newspapers. Between the little ‘reichstag fire’ on prom night and changing the rules on the banking enquiry after the vote, he has certainly reminded us of FGs roots.
Fine Gael mouthpiece you say? The article is highly critical of the government. Hardly mouthpiece stuff.
Always ironic to see the usual Sinn Fein sympathizers speak of Fascism…
Can’t stand the guy either but in his defender I thought he literally did say your comment when he spoke about the current government being undemocratic
Who voted against the bailout, Aaron?
http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0664/D.0664.200810170003.html
” changing the rules to alter a result you dont care for is un democratic” hang on a minute isn’t that exactly what happened with the lisbon treaty?
Our friends from SF HQ, Werejam and Ciara are obviously delighted with any device to scupper the banking enquiry. They need FF as strong as possible for their 2016 SF/FF coalition: the more delayed the banking enquiry can be the better in that regard.
The government of the day up to 2008 are most culpable. Anything that derails a quest for that accountability is a good thing it would seem. SF are masters in the dark arts of misdirection and diversion.
Any comment to make about your partys senior member, Phil hogans, cushy relationship with ‘Fingers’ Fingleton which resulted in him securing a €900,000 interest only loan?
FG want control to make sure the spotlight is kept on FF. One member of enquiry has already indicated that enda kenny should be called in front of the committee, interesting times ahead….
There you go again.
In fairness John Enda has all ready scuppered the banking inquiry by what he has said about the inquiry and its make up…..
Yeah, let’s cancel the whole thing. We aren’t idiots are we.
Europe must find this hysterical.
We moan that we were duped into guaranteeing banking debts by the ECB.
FF/Dept of Finance lose the letter from Trichet.
We try to hold and an enquiry.
But it get’s cancelled by the rabble because it might show FF in an unfair light. We wouldn’t want that now would we. It will be too difficult to avoid blaming FF for anything, so we’d be better off not having any enquiry.
SF now seem to think it is the borrower’s fault again, using werejam’s example of Fingleton & Hogan. Until now it was the lender’s fault, and the foreign lenders to the domestic lenders fault. Which is it? Do you not want to go after anyone in case you miss out on Phil Hogan and anyone else who were able to get dodgy loans for our dodgy banks?
This comment makes no sense. SF didn’t scupper the banking inquiry. That’s the whole point of this piece. If anything, SF are in competition with FF for votes. So by keeping the banking inquiry going, they keep the heat on FF. And if the polls and recent elections are anything to go by, Irish people need reminding what FF actually did to this country
SF are complicit with FF in derailing the enquiry. SF+FF have something cooking in the oven. How long will it be before it is ready for public consumption.
Fooling the public for another two years seems unlikely for this goverment. maybe it should be RTE providing the 4.6 million budget for this fictional mini series where the guilty end up getting their costs and drawing down their pensions. We are stuck with the debt no matter what, we are stuck with the Dail and the Seanad, lobbyist have written their own code of conduct and handed the finished copy to Howlin to publish announcing reform for the people.the trust is gone all that remains now is how many more generations will lie down and allow themselves to be treated as idiots.
This is no “show trial”. It has no teeth. It is a talk-show.
Pretty much a rewritten version of an Irish Times article from earlier this week. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/has-sinn-f%C3%A9in-saved-the-government-s-bacon-1.1836701
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