Azernews.Az

The leader of a ring held responsible for the recent bombing of a mosque in Baku has been killed in Daghestan, the Russian republic's interior ministry said.
Ilgar Mollachiyev, known among militants as "The Emir of the Daghestan people," along with two others, was killed during a special police operation. Officials report a car driven by the militants had been surrounded and they were killed while resisting arrest.
The same source said Mollachiyev's armed group includes up to 40 members, including three suspects who are wanted by Russian law enforcement officials. The militants have killed three police officers and two civilians this year. In August, several members of the ring crossed into Azerbaijan and a special operation was conducted to apprehend them.
Officials note that Azerbaijani law enforcement officials have proven that those killed were responsible for the deadly explosion at the Abu Bakr mosque in Baku.
Two hand grenades exploded at the mosque on August 17, killing two and injuring 18 others. The mosque predominantly serves followers of Wahhabism.
An operation is currently underway in Derbend to arrest the other members of the ring.
Earlier reports said the ring, called "The Forest Brothers", was made up of two groups. One of the groups, "the Sumgayit community," was prepared to commit robberies in Baku and to purchase arms using the stolen funds, as well as to commit acts of terror. The other group, referred to as "The Guba and Gusar community," was to set up military camps in the forests.
On Saturday, three residents of the town of Gusar were killed in a special operation conducted by Azerbaijani law enforcement officers, the National Security Ministry and Prosecutor General's Office said in an update regarding the Abu Bakr blast. Those killed were suspected of complicity in the explosion and being associated with the gang. One of the dead is said to have wounded two police officers in Gusar in September 2007 and escaped from the scene. The district prosecutor's office had instituted criminal proceedings and begun to search for him.
During the operation to seize ring members, large quantities of weapons were confiscated, including pistols, bullets, cold weapons, as well as a tent, maps, a compass, military instruction manuals, cash worth $15,700 and 460 manats and two Japanese walkie-talkies.
Law enforcement officers sustained no casualties or injuries during the operation, the statement said.
According to testimony provided earlier, Mollachiyev, his brother-in-law, Samir Mehdiyev, and their accomplices had illegally crossed Azerbaijan's border and settled in Baku and Sumgayit.
Most of the "The Forest Brothers" members were seized by Azerbaijani law enforcement agencies in 2007. Another leader of the ring, Saudi Arabian citizen Nail Abdul Karim al-Bedevi, known as "Abu Jafar," and 17 others charged with setting up an illegal armed group linked to the Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad terror groups, received jail sentences in late July.
After members of the gang, based in Sumgayit, were arrested, Mollachiyev planned to reactivate the "The Forest Brothers" and commit terror acts in a bid to disrupt socio-political stability in Azerbaijan, investigators said.