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Gunmen shot at a synagogue and a church in Derbent, as well as a police post in Makhachkala.
Gunmen killed at least six police officers during what appear to be coordinated attacks on a synagogue, an Orthodox church and a police post in the Russian republic of Dagestan, the Interior Ministry in Dagestan said.
Twelve people were injured in the attacks that took place on Sunday afternoon in the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala.
Both the synagogue and church are located in Derbent, which is home to an ancient Jewish community in the Muslim-majority North Caucasus region. The attack on the police post took place in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, approximately 125 kilometers (75 miles) away.
The Derbent synagogue was set on fire as a result of the attack, local officials told Reuters news agency, while eyewitnesses also reported smoke rising from the church.
Two of the attackers were shot dead, according to Russian news agencies citing the country's Interior Ministry.
The attackers had earlier been seen in Derbent fleeing in a car.
“Tonight in Derbent and Makhachkala unknown people tried to destabilize the public situation,” said the head of the Republic of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov. “The Dagestan police officers stood in their way. According to preliminary information, there are victims among them. “All services are acting in accordance with instructions… The identities of the attackers are being established.”
Daniel Hawkins, reporting for Al Jazeera from Moscow, said there have also been reports that a priest at the church was killed.
Dagestan has seen separatist violence in the 1990s and early 2000s, Hawkins explained.
“The violence there, as the years have gone by, has calmed down,” Hawkins said, explaining that the region never saw the kind of conflict that engulfed the neighboring Russian republic of Chechyna, in which Russian forces and separatists fought two brutal wars during the same period.
“This type of coordinated, targeted attack on civilian religious infrastructure is highly unusual and will undoubtedly be shocking to Russians across the country,” Hawkins added.
