WASHINGTON, August 29 - RAPSI. The United States condemns the suicide bombing in Dagestan that killed leading Sufi cleric Sheikh Said Afandi and six others, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing.

The cleric and his followers were killed by a bomb detonated by a female suicide bomber in the Buinak Region village of Chirkey. The bomber posed as a religious devotee and came into Afandi's house wearing an explosive bomb belt. Investigators have indentified her as Aminat Kurbanova (Saprykina), a resident of Makhachkala born in 1982.
Nuland continued that the US has always been concerned with the escalation of violence in some regions of Russian and has always condemned and will continue to condemn acts of extremism.

Sheikh Said Afandi was a well known spiritual leader to thousands of people. He was a teacher and community figure, also renowned as a Sufi scholar and author of religious books.

The Investigative Committee has launched a probe into the matter, based on the charges of "murder," "illegal arms trafficking" and "illegal arms manufacture".