The Islamic State in Afghanistan is not behind the March March 11 attacks in Derbent, Dagestan, and the Russian Orthodox Synagogue

The first days of mourning were held in the southern region of Russia after a rampage by Islamic extremists that killed at least 19 people, most of them police, in two cities.

Shortly after the attacks in Derbent, militants fired at a police post in Makhachkala and attacked a Russian Orthodox Church and a synagogue there before being hunted down and killed by special forces.

The affiliate of the Islamic State group in Afghanistan that claimed responsibility for March’s raid quickly praised the attack in Dagestan, saying it was conducted by “brothers in the Caucasus who showed that they are still strong.”

The Institute for the Study of War said that the Vilayat Kavkaz branch of the Islamic State group is likely to have been behind the attack.

President Vladimir Putin had sought to blame the March attack on Ukraine, again without evidence and despite the claim of responsibility by the Islamic State affiliate. Kyiv has vehemently denied any involvement.

The five attackers were killed by the Investigative Committee. Of the 19 people killed, 15 were police.

The attacks happened at the same time as the Orthodox Christian holiday of Pentecost with the icon in Makhachkala burned and the elderly priest dead in Derbent.

Russia’s terrorist cell is not counterterrorism in the Cold War: Sunday’s attack on a synagogue in Derbent and Makhachkala

The Russian security agency reported that it had broken up a “terrorist cell” in Russia and arrested four of its members who had provided weapons and cash to suspected attackers in Moscow.

There were near-daily attacks on the police and other authorities in the early 2000s. Many people from the region joined the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

The response to the attack on Sunday was more significant than previously seen, but still lacking, said Harold Chambers, an analyst specializing in the North Caucasus.

He said that the attackers were caught off guard. “What we’re seeing here is still this disconnect between Russian counterterrorism capability and what the terrorists capability is inside of Russia.”

Armed assailants launched near-simultaneous attacks Sunday on a Jewish synagogue, two Orthodox Christian churches and a police station, in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala and the costal city of Derbent. There was no formal claim of responsibility.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, says it has opened a criminal probe into “acts of terror,” and the Kremlin has cautioned to await its findings.

Local officials argued that the attackers intended to ignite violence in a region that has struggled with Extremism in the past.

“This is an attempt to tear apart our unity,” Sergei Melikov, the Kremlin-appointed head of the Republic of Dagestan, said in a social media post after the incidents.

The Jewish community goes back hundreds of years. Its synagogue was set ablaze and destroyed. There were no worshippers there at the time.

A Counterterrorism Task Force in Dagestan, Israel, After the Crocus City Attack: Russia and its Security Services are Behind Its Crimes

Several of the attackers were captured on video by terrified locals and shared on social media, and officers bore the worst of the casualties in the subsequent firefights.

By morning, a national counterterrorism task force provided few details other than to say the “active phase” of an antiterrorist operation in both cities had ended successfully.

Earlier this month, a brief prison uprising in the city of Rostov by six Islamic State-linked inmates ended after Russian special forces stormed the premises and shot them dead.

The airport in Dagestan was mobbed by pro-Palestinian people as Israel waged its war in Gaza.

Several attackers’ faces were captured by witness videos while authorities have yet to publicly identify them. Local media later said they had identified some of them.

Several Kremlin allies and Russian nationalists have offered theories as the country waits for the Investigative Committee’s findings.

“NATO and the Ukrainian security forces are behind this,” Dagestan’s representative to the Duma, Abdulkhakim Gadzhiev, said in an interview to state TV channel Russia 24.

The writers were the Western intelligence services, stated Alexander Sladkov, one of the nationalist war correspondents who have gained notoriety on social media.

The Russian government responded to the attack on the concert hall in Moscow. The terrorist group immediately claimed responsibility for the carnage.

The United States shared intelligence against the group a few weeks ago. President Putin had said the information was a blackmail attempt and an attempt tointimidate and destabilizing our society.

At the time, experts said the security failure reflected the Russian president’s unceasing focus on Ukraine — and jailing Russians opposed to his policies — rather than rooting out domestic threats.

It’s a system where “punishment is more important than protection of civilians,” Andrei Soldatov, a leading expert on the Russian security services, said in an interview with NPR following the Crocus City attack.

A terrorist attack needs a set of skills and capabilities that are completely different. It is necessary for you to know how to share intelligence with international partners. And for that, you need a lot of trust.”

But after this weekend’s attack, even some Kremlin allies are warning there is danger in Russia’s apparent failure to address troubles of its own making.

“I think if we assign responsibility to NATO and Ukraine for every terrorist act that involves national or religious intolerance, this rose-colored fog will lead us to big problems,” Dmitry Rogozin, a noted hawk, wrote on social media on Sunday.

Russia is not the same now as it was then, said Peskov on Monday. “And such criminal terrorist manifestations as we saw in Dagestan yesterday are not supported by society, neither in Russia as a whole or in Dagestan.”