Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan's security ministry said Tuesday it had detained a group of armed Islamist radicals headed by an al-Qaeda fighter.
"As a result of a special operation carried out by the National Security Ministry on November 2-3, a group of eight people, including al Qaeda emissary known as Abu Jafar was detained," the ministry said in a statement.
It did not provide the full name of the ethnic Arab individual.
The criminal group, which is linked to such international terror cells as al-Qaeda and al-Jihad, included individuals who had earlier fought in various conflict zones as part of illegal armed units and radical Wahhabis.
The ministry spokesman Arif Babayev declined to say if the fighters were linked to a recently-detained group of Wahhabis planning an armed attack on government agencies and diplomatic missions in Baku.
The fighters were nabbed in Sumgayit, some 30 km north of Baku. The detention followed a shooting between a member of the gang, 32-year old Gusar resident Telman Abdullayev, on September 26. The outlaw had opened fire at two policemen as the National Security and Interior Ministries conducted an operation to seize him. Four other gang members were detained later.
The criminals planned to arrange Abu Jafar's secret departure from Azerbaijan. The law enforcers traced him at an apartment in Sumgayit. On October 10, they detained in the hideout a local resident Elchin Alimirzayev nicknamed Abdul Malik and Haji. Abu Jafar succeeded in escaping the area after opening fire in a crowded place.
Shortly thereafter, however, Abu Jafar was tracked down in a new residence where he was guarded by two gang members possessing firearms and grenades.
Abu Jafar was seized on November 2-3 along with seven accomplices. During the special operation, he showed resistance by threatening to blow up a hand grenade, but special troops succeeded in neutralizing him.
Large quantities of weapons and ammunition were impounded, including four crates of submachine guns, three pistols, bullets, rounds and fuses, a dozen hand grenades, 1.75 kg of TNT explosives, as well as maps of Sumgayit.
In recent years, authorities have arrested dozens of people suspected of links to Islamist militants, but the country has no history of militant violence.