Three suspects have been arrested for allegedly helping a female suicide bomber kill an influential moderate Muslim leader in Russia's Republic of Dagestan. Officials in the North Caucasus republic said on December 12 that the suspects escorted the bomber to the home of Dagestan's leading Muslim Sufi cleric, Said Afandi Atsayev, in August. Atsayev and six others were killed in the attack. A provincial spokesman said the suspects were detained on December 9 during anti-terror raids on three villages.
Several attacks on moderate Muslim leaders in Dagestan followed Atsayev's murder.