Another Terror Attack in Dagestan, Russia... 19 Dead Including Police

On the afternoon of March 24, a mourner is shedding tears in front of the Embassy of Russia in Seoul's Jung-gu district. [Image source=Yonhap News]

A terrorist attack in Russia resulted in the deaths of 19 people, including police officers and civilians. It occurred three months after the Moscow concert hall attack in March, which left over 100 casualties.

On the evening of the 23rd (local time), according to foreign media such as the US daily The New York Times (NYT) and the UK’s BBC, assailants stormed a synagogue, an Orthodox church, and a police station in Makhachkala and Derbent, the capital and a region of the Republic of Dagestan in southwestern Russia, and opened fire.

At one synagogue in the Derbent area, a fire broke out following the shooting, completely destroying the building.

Authorities conducted an anti-terror operation, and on the morning of the 24th, the terrorists were shot dead, ending the operation.

According to TASS news agency and others, a total of 19 people died during the operation, including 15 police officers and 4 civilians.

The investigative committee stated in a press release that authorities shot dead five gunmen during the anti-terror operation and confirmed their identities.

The identity of the terrorists has not yet been revealed, but since the attack occurred on Pentecost, a feast day of the Russian Orthodox Church, there is a possibility that the crime was motivated by religious reasons. Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, also said that the fact the attack happened on Pentecost is "not a coincidence."

This terrorist attack comes three months after the Moscow concert hall attack. On March 22, a shooting and arson attack at a concert hall in central Moscow killed about 140 people and injured over 550.

The extremist armed group Islamic State (IS) claimed that its branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), was behind the attack. The NYT pointed out that the repeated terrorist incidents in Russia reveal "Russia’s vulnerability to extremist violence."