A female suicide bomber posing as a Muslim pilgrim killed a leading Islamic scholar and at least five others on a night of heavy violence in Russia's restive Muslim region of Dagestan.
The Caspian Sea region's interior ministry said the attack claimed the life of one of Dagestan's most respected religious leaders who defended
moderate Islam against the rise of radical militancy.
The ministry said in a statement that a woman ``posing as a pilgrim'' walked into the home of Said Afandi and detonated a suicide belt.
"Six people died besides the suicide bomber,'' the Dagestani interior ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
"These included Sheikh Said Afandi.''
The attack came just a month after the chief cleric of Russia's main Muslim region of Tatarstan in central Russia survived an assassination attempt that claimed the life of his former deputy.
The targeted Tatarstan clerics and Afandi were all Sufis who promoted a form of Islamic tolerance and cooperation with the authorities backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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