The shooting of a Chabad rabbi in the Russian republic of Dagestan was likely a terrorist attack by Muslim extremists, investigators said more than week after a local political leader, where the attempted murder occurred, stated terrorists carried out the attack.
Rabbi Artur Ovadia Isakov was shot on July 25 in Derbent, in southern Russia, “because of his religious duties, likely by Muslim extremists,” investigators said, according to a report by the Russian news site Gazeta.ru. Police still are searching for the attackers, while the Russia’s intelligence agency found 100 pounds of explosives in the hands of Muslim extremists in Dagestan, Gazeta.ru reported.
Rabbi Isakov was gunned down by unknown assailants outside his home as he was exiting his car. Ramazan Abdulatipov, the acting president of Dagestan, released a statement after the shooting blaming “extremists and terrorists [who] do not want a happy, normal life for us all.” He said, “Only ignorant people, enemies of Dagestan, are able to do this.”
Rabbi Isakov was flown to Israel in critical condition with injuries to his liver but has since regained consciousness and is no longer in life-threatening condition.