A radical Muslim cleric has been shot dead in Russia's southern city of Derbent.
Two gunmen killed Imam Kalimulla Ibragimov, his father and brother as they left their house for a morning prayer early today.
Regional police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said the 49-year-old imam preached Salafism, a radical movement that promotes an ultraconservative brand of Islam.
The deaths come during a period of tension between radical Islamists and moderate Muslims in the volatile Dagestan province.
Russia's militant Salafis want an independent Islamist state that would include the Caucasus region and parts of southern Russia with sizable Muslim populations.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack could be linked to the tension between Salafis and Sufi Muslim groups.
Mr Ibragimov is the fifth Muslim cleric killed this year in Dagestan, Russia's most ethnically diverse republic of 3m.
It lies between Chechnya and the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
In August, a female suicide bomber killed Said Afandi, the powerful leader of a Sufi Muslim brotherhood, along with six other people.
Mr Afandi's tens of thousands of followers included influential officials, clerics and businessmen.
