MOSCOW: The toll from a series of coordinated attacks in Russia’s southern Dagestan region last month has climbed to 22, according to regional governor Sergei Melikov on Monday.
Gunmen launched simultaneous assaults on two churches, two synagogues, and a police checkpoint across two cities in Dagestan on June 23. Initially reported as 21 fatalities, Melikov confirmed an additional casualty, bringing the total to 22.
“In total, 17 police officers and five civilians lost their lives,” Melikov stated, addressing the updated death toll during his remarks to Russian news agencies.
The Kremlin has downplayed concerns that these attacks might signal a resurgence of separatist violence that plagued the historically turbulent region throughout the 1990s and early 2000s.
These incidents occurred merely three months after a devastating assault by Daesh militants claimed over 140 lives at a Moscow concert hall, marking Russia’s deadliest terror attack in nearly twenty years.
Melikov also said that one of the assailants had been involved in a previous incident at Dagestan’s main airport last October.
Regarding the June attacks, Melikov detailed that two synagogues in Makhachkala and Derbent were targeted, resulting in extensive damage to the latter due to fires started by Molotov cocktails. Among the casualties was a Russian Orthodox priest, adding to the tragic toll of the assaults.
Melikov also suggested a possible influence from Western sources in shaping the ideological stance of the attackers, though he did not provide concrete evidence or specify further details.
