MAKHACHKALA -- An imam in Russia's Daghestan region in the North Caucasus has been killed in an attack.
Police officials in Daghestan say that unknown attackers shot dead Imam Suleiman Kokreksky in the evening on December 1 in the city of Khasavyurt near the border with Chechnya.
Kokreksky is the third imam killed in Daghestan by unknown assailants in recent months.
Imams Zamirbek Makhmudov and Magomed Khidirov were shot dead in August and September, respectively.
Daghestan is beset by violence linked to an Islamist insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet separatist conflicts in neighboring Chechnya as well as organized crime, business turf wars, political disputes, and clan rivalry.
Moderate Muslims, journalists, police, and officials are regularly targeted in attacks.
