(Updates with higher death toll)
MAKHACHKALA, Russia, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a school principal in her home in Russia's troubled Dagestan province on Friday, while separate shoot-outs killed 12 other people across the North Caucasus.
An Islamist insurgency is raging in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, where rebels angry about poverty and fuelled by the ideology of global jihad want to carve out an independent state governed by sharia law.
Police in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala told Reuters they were looking for two men who had shot dead high school principal Patimat Magomedova with an assault rifle after entering her home.
Later in Makhachkala, which straddles the Caspian Sea, armed clashes killed two law enforcement officers and two militants who had reportedly thrown grenades towards the police, Interfax news agency said, citing the National Anti-terror Committee.
The battle followed an earlier shoot-out in the village of Kirovaul, some 150 km (95 miles) north of Makhachkala, in which police said federal forces killed five rebels, including one woman.
In neighbouring Chechnya, three soldiers were killed after an exchange of fire with rebels, Interfax reported citing a law enforcement source.
A decade after separatists were driven from power in the second of two Chechnya wars, the North Caucasus is plagued by near-daily attacks. Dagestan has overtaken Chechnya and Ingushetia as the epicentre of violence.
In recent months, attacks on teachers and imams have become more frequent in Dagestan, in what analysts say are attempts by rebels to target those they believe are not abiding by the laws of true Islam. (Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Charles Dick)
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