{"id":79985,"date":"2024-06-24T11:56:08","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T11:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/24\/death-toll-in-attacks-in-southern-russia-rises-to-19-officials-say\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T11:56:08","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T11:56:08","slug":"death-toll-in-attacks-in-southern-russia-rises-to-19-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/24\/death-toll-in-attacks-in-southern-russia-rises-to-19-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Toll in Attacks in Southern Russia Rises to 19, Officials Say"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/24\/multimedia\/24russia-attack-01-bqhf\/24russia-attack-01-bqhf-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Death Toll in Attacks in Southern Russia Rises to 19, Officials Say\" title=\"Death Toll in Attacks in Southern Russia Rises to 19, Officials Say\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At least 15 law enforcement officers and four civilians were killed in two seemingly coordinated attacks by gunmen in Russia\u2019s southern republic of Dagestan, Russian investigators said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wielding rifles and Molotov cocktails, the attackers assaulted synagogues and Orthodox churches on Sunday night in two major cities of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region on the Caspian Sea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">One of the civilians killed was Nikolai Kotelnikov, a priest in the city of Derbent. The attackers also set fire to a synagogue in the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For hours, the gunmen were on the loose, engaging in shooting sprees with members of the law enforcement, according to statements from the region\u2019s interior ministry. Five attackers were eventually killed, local officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russian investigators designated the attack an act of terrorism, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Local officials declared a three-day mourning period in Dagestan, a multireligious and ethnically diverse region, and said families of the victims would receive special compensation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Kremlin spokesman said on Monday that President Vladimir V. Putin was receiving regular reports on the attack, but that he did not plan to address the nation about it. The spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, declined to comment on the gunmen\u2019s motives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The attack was the latest in a series of acts of extremist violence in Russia in recent months, underlining the country\u2019s complex security challenges as it remains bogged down in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/news-event\/ukraine-russia\" title=\"\">war against neighboring Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In March, four gunmen <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2024\/03\/22\/world\/moscow-shooting\" title=\"\">killed 145 people at a concert hall<\/a> near Moscow in an attack claimed by the Islamic State. And in Dagestan last October, a mob, apparently searching for Jewish passengers, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/29\/world\/middleeast\/dagestan-airport-russia-israel-mob.html?searchResultPosition=2\" title=\"\">stormed a plane<\/a> arriving from Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russian officials tried to mask intelligence failures surrounding the Moscow concert hall attack by blaming it on the West and Ukraine, without providing evidence. And initial statements by officials after Sunday\u2019s attack suggested that the government may adopt a similar tactic in Dagestan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe understand who is behind these acts of terror,\u201d Sergei Melikov, the top official of Dagestan, said in an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/melikov05\/2379\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">address<\/a> to its residents. He made a comparison between the victims of the assault and Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, saying they were facing the same enemy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need to understand that war comes into our home,\u201d Mr. Melikov added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin\u2019s spokesman, in his daily news briefing on Monday appeared to draw a connection between the Dagestan violence and a separate attack by Ukraine on Sunday on occupied Crimea. He did not, however, directly blame Ukraine or the West for the attack in Dagestan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia\u2019s antiterrorism committee, a body that coordinates the fight against terrorism in the country, said in a statement that two attackers had been killed in Derbent and three more in Makhachkala. It said that law enforcement officers were looking for accomplices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The investigators did not disclose their identities, and their motives were not immediately clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The agency also posted <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/vk.com\/nakgov?w=wall-176685352_1420\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a video<\/a> showing burned cars, guns in pools of blood and heavily armed security service officers chasing the apparent perpetrators inside an Orthodox church. The video could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Melikov said a manhunt would continue in the republic until \u201call members of extremist sleeping cells\u201d that were \u201cundoubtedly prepared also from abroad\u201d were caught.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday, he visited the sites of attack in Derbent. He walked through the halls of the local synagogue, home to one of the oldest Jewish communities in Russia. The synagogue\u2019s main hall was burned down as a result of the attack, according to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/melikov05\/2383\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a video<\/a> posted by the regional government. That video also could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Oleg Matsnev<!-- --> contributed research.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/24\/world\/europe\/russia-attack-dagestan.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least 15 law enforcement officers and four civilians were killed in two seemingly coordinated attacks by gunmen in Russia\u2019s southern republic of Dagestan, Russian investigators said on Monday. Wielding rifles and Molotov cocktails, the attackers assaulted synagogues and Orthodox churches on Sunday night in two major cities of Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim region on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/24\/multimedia\/24russia-attack-01-bqhf\/24russia-attack-01-bqhf-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1179,1860,120,8241,202,4799,11469],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79987,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79985\/revisions\/79987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}