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November 14, 2007
Azerbaijan: Armed Islamists Who Plotted Embassy Attacks
From Interfax-Religion, Reuters, Xinhua News, Axis Globe and Moscow Times.
Two Islamists who had planned to attack the US embassy in Azerbaijan were arrested on November 9, hiding in woods in the district of Ismaillinsky, near Baku. Weapons were recovered. They did not offer resistance when captured. One of these individuals was a renegade member of the Azeri army called Kyamran Asadov, born in 1975.
Asadov had deserted from his army post at Hanlar in October, taking with him four rifles, a machine gun, twenty grenades and ammunition. He had been part of a group called by Azeris "Wahhabis". On October 28 and October 29, law enforcement officers had mounted operations against Wahhabis in the district of Zabrat in the capital, Baku, and also Ismaillinsky district. Acting on intelligence, on October 27, an operation had taken place at a house in a village on the outskirts of Tbilisi, several members of the Islamist group were captured. One who resisted capture was killed.
One of the men who was arrested was said to be an Al Qaeda fighter. At the time, Azeri Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu, had said: "The search for Asadov, who is, unfortunately, a follower of Wahhabism, will continue until he is caught."
Khyrdalan Vugar Aliyev and Elshan Mamedov, two of the individuals captured in the October raids, had informed authorities of the plans to attack the US embassy in Baku.
On October 30, Asadov and his remaining accomplice, Farid Dzhabarov, carried out a robbery at a Lukoil gasoline fueling station, seriously injuring one man who worked at the gas station.
In detention after being captured on November 9, Asadov and Dzhabarov were displayed on state TV stations. They claimed that they carried out the armed robbery with a third individual, Bakhtiyar Orudzhev. Whether he has been caught is not known. The men admitted plotting to attack the US embassy. Asadov was recorded saying: "Our aim was to kill U.S. citizens because they kill Muslims."
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 14, 2007 8:25 AM
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