Russia's Dagestan region holds day of mourning after 19 killed in attacks

The southern Russian region of Dagestan on Monday started the first of three days of mourning after Islamic militants killed 19 people, primarily police officers, and attacked churches and synagogues in two cities on Sunday.

Of the 19 people who were killed, 15 were police officers and one was a 66-year-old Russian Orthodox priest, the Rev. Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had his throat slit before attackers lit the church on fire, local public oversight official Shamil Khadulayev said, The Associated Press reported. 

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the country's top criminal investigation agency, said that five attackers were killed and have been identified. 

The suspects, in an apparently coordinated attack, targeted Dagestan's regional capital of Makhachkala, where a synagogue and a Russian Orthodox Church were attacked, and in the nearby city of Derbent, where another synagogue and a Russian Orthodox Church were set on fire.

The Institute for the Study of War, based out of Washington, D.C., said that an Islamic State affiliate was likely responsible for the attack.

The assault Sunday is the deadliest in Russia since gunmen opened fire in a concert hall in a suburb of Moscow, killing 145 people.  

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