US lauds government`s counterterrorism efforts
The US State Department praised Azerbaijan`s
counterterrorism efforts in 2008 in a report reviewing the record
of countries around the globe in combating terror.
According to the document, released last week, Azerbaijan is a logical route for extremists with ties to terrorist organizations, including several people, money, and materiel traveling through the Caucasus, but the government has actively opposed them and has had some success in reducing their presence and hampering their activities. Azerbaijan has taken steps to combat terrorist financing and identify possible terrorist-related funding by distributing lists of suspected terrorist groups and individuals to local banks. The government`s draft law on money laundering, with the goal of creating an anti-money laundering and counterterrorist finance regime, including reporting requirements, a Financial Intelligence Unit, and other components as defined by international standards, was in an advanced stage of training prosecutors, investigators, and judges on implementing anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing law enforcement techniques, the State Department said.
Further, the report said that Azerbaijan and the United States have a strong record of cooperation on counterterrorism issues that pre-dates the September 11, 2001 attacks. Azerbaijan supported peacekeeping operations in Iraq from August 2003 to November 2008 with an infantry company of about 150 soldiers stationed at the Haditha dam. A platoon of Azerbaijani soldiers has served in Afghanistan since November 2002.
The report also noted that on August 17 an unknown assailant or assailants attacked Baku`s main Sunni mosque with grenades, killing three and wounding eight. The government detained thirteen suspects in late August and early September in connection with the attack. In its September 2 public statement on the attack, the Ministry of National Security alleged that Ilgar Mollachiyev, an Azerbaijani citizen associated with extremist activities in the Russian region of Daghestan, along with his brother-in-law, Samir Mehtiyev, masterminded the attack. Mollachiyev was killed by Russian security forces in Daghestan in September. The investigation into the attack is ongoing.
The State Department also said Al-Qaeda strongholds in northwestern Pakistan pose the most perilous threat of terror to Western countries. It maintained that Iran is the most active sponsor of terrorism worldwide.
The US government said, further, that amid a decreasing number of terror acts in the world, the opposite tendency is seen in Pakistan, and 2,293 people fell victim of terrorism in this country in 2008. Terrorist activity is also on the rise in Afghanistan, it said.
Besides Iran, the State Department included Syria, Sudan and Cuba on the list of countries supporting terror.
According to the document, released last week, Azerbaijan is a logical route for extremists with ties to terrorist organizations, including several people, money, and materiel traveling through the Caucasus, but the government has actively opposed them and has had some success in reducing their presence and hampering their activities. Azerbaijan has taken steps to combat terrorist financing and identify possible terrorist-related funding by distributing lists of suspected terrorist groups and individuals to local banks. The government`s draft law on money laundering, with the goal of creating an anti-money laundering and counterterrorist finance regime, including reporting requirements, a Financial Intelligence Unit, and other components as defined by international standards, was in an advanced stage of training prosecutors, investigators, and judges on implementing anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing law enforcement techniques, the State Department said.
Further, the report said that Azerbaijan and the United States have a strong record of cooperation on counterterrorism issues that pre-dates the September 11, 2001 attacks. Azerbaijan supported peacekeeping operations in Iraq from August 2003 to November 2008 with an infantry company of about 150 soldiers stationed at the Haditha dam. A platoon of Azerbaijani soldiers has served in Afghanistan since November 2002.
The report also noted that on August 17 an unknown assailant or assailants attacked Baku`s main Sunni mosque with grenades, killing three and wounding eight. The government detained thirteen suspects in late August and early September in connection with the attack. In its September 2 public statement on the attack, the Ministry of National Security alleged that Ilgar Mollachiyev, an Azerbaijani citizen associated with extremist activities in the Russian region of Daghestan, along with his brother-in-law, Samir Mehtiyev, masterminded the attack. Mollachiyev was killed by Russian security forces in Daghestan in September. The investigation into the attack is ongoing.
The State Department also said Al-Qaeda strongholds in northwestern Pakistan pose the most perilous threat of terror to Western countries. It maintained that Iran is the most active sponsor of terrorism worldwide.
The US government said, further, that amid a decreasing number of terror acts in the world, the opposite tendency is seen in Pakistan, and 2,293 people fell victim of terrorism in this country in 2008. Terrorist activity is also on the rise in Afghanistan, it said.
Besides Iran, the State Department included Syria, Sudan and Cuba on the list of countries supporting terror.
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