Russian Orthodox Patriarch condemns Chechnya church attack

MOSCOW: The head of the Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday condemned an armed attack on a church in the mainly Muslim region of Chechnya in which two police officers and a civilian were killed.

Patriarch Kirill warned the Saturday attack in Grozny, which ended with four assailants killed by security forces, was aimed at disrupting relations between Christians and Muslims in the volatile North Caucasus region.

"This inhuman and cynical exploit by terrorists... was aimed at shaking the peace and agreement between religions that is so valuable in the region, to sow enmity and fear among its residents," the patriarch said in a message to clerics and parishioners in the region. The attack during Ramazan targeted the Church of Archangel Michael in central Grozny, the tightly controlled main city of the troubled republic where Russia has fought two fierce wars with separatists over the past 20 years.

The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said the attackers killed two police guarding the church and wounded two more as well as killing a male parishioner. The four attackers were killed at the scene and found to be armed with knives and a shotgun, investigators said.

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his social media account on Saturday that "we have intelligence that the terrorists received an order from the territory of a Western country to carry out a high-profile act," without saying which country.

He said he was at the scene to coordinate the police and special forces operation against the attackers, posting pictures of himself with security chiefs. Three of the attackers came from Grozny, while one was from a neighbouring region he said, posting a graphic picture of himself looking at corpses of young men lying on the road.

The Kremlin is fighting a deadly insurgency against Islamist rebels in the largely Muslim North Caucasus, with unrest particularly intense in Dagestan, which borders Chechnya. In 2015, Islamist rebels in the region swore allegiance to Islamic State (IS) Jihadist group and many went to fight in both Syria and Iraq.

The Grozny attack comes after five women were shot dead in February in an attack on an Orthodox church in Dagestan, with IS claiming responsibility for the assault. Moderate Islamic clerics have also been attacked and killed in the North Caucasus.