just from the details we have, of what we ve seen and that these attacks in russia? obviously, there is a lot we do not know but it fits a pattern of attacks we have seen, including last year byjihadists linked to the islamic state probably from the islamic state khorasan, which is their branch in central asia, and has carried out attacks in moscow and this attack is close to their home territory. can we infer anything? we know the sites that were targeted, two churches, one a synagogue these are religious venues. can we make anything from that in terms of what was actually targeted? so, the islamic state and individuals that follow it see themselves as part of a religious struggle. they see a western war on islam and they see awar a war done by christians and dues on religious targets. jews. by striking religious targets, they believe they re defending their faith. as you said earlier, we re still working to confirm a lot of the facts here and figure out exactly who w
were also set ablaze. six of the attackers are reported to have been killed in what is thought to have been an islamist attack in a region which is predominately muslim. the governor of dagestan sergei melikov said they were trying to understand the motive behind the attack. translation: of course, we understand what s behind the organisation of these terrorist attacks. we understand what the organisers were trying to achieve. subsequent operational research and investigative measures will be carried out until all participants and their sleeper cells are identified and, of course, they had been preparing for this, course, they had been preparing forthis, including course, they had been preparing for this, including from abroad. the situation is now under the control of the government authorities and. let s speak to matthew schmidt, an associate professor of national security and political science at the university of new haven. good to have you on the programme. once again, d