20 Die, Including Police, in Coordinated Attacks in Russia’s Dagestan Region

Multiple shooting attacks in Russia’s southern Dagestan region have left at least 20 people dead, including more than a dozen policemen, local officials have said. “This is a day of tragedy for Dagestan and the entire country,” regional governor Sergey Melikov said immediately after the incident. On the evening of June 23, gunmen attacked an Orthodox church and a synagogue in Dagestan’s coastal city of Derbent. According to Russian press reports, the attackers torched a religious icon in the church and killed a 66-year-old Orthodox priest. Both the church and the synagogue reportedly sustained significant fire damage. In a subsequent statement, Israel’s foreign ministry said the synagogue had been burnt to the ground but that no worshippers had been in the building at the time of the attack....