Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan`s northern border remains endangered and the country`s law enforcement agencies continue conducting joint operations with their Russian counterparts to stem the threat, the Azerbaijani State Border Service chief says.
"The recent developments on the Azeri-Russian border are the focus of attention for both countries` border services," Elchin Guliyev told a news conference Friday, held immediately following a meeting of CIS Council of Frontier Troops in Baku.
Earlier this month, an operation was carried out in the Russian republic of Daghestan to apprehend members of the ring called "The Forest Brothers," whose members were trying to illegally cross Azerbaijan`s northern border. Thirteen members of the gang were detained and prosecuted. The leader of the ring, Ilgar Mollachiyev, known among militants as "The Emir of the Daghestan people," was killed.
Guliyev said the provisioning of Azerbaijan`s northern borderline territories with border service supplies and fortifications would be completed this year. In 2009, new equipment will be used, which will bring the protection of these areas to 90-95% of the total area, one of the highest levels in the world.
Many of the "The Forest Brothers" members were seized by Azerbaijani security officers in 2007. Another leader of the ring, Saudi Arabian citizen Nail Abdul Karim al-Bedevi, known as "Abu Jafar," and 17 other individuals charged with setting up an illegal armed group linked to the Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad terror groups, received jail sentences this past July.
After members of the gang, based in the city of Sumgayit, were arrested, Mollachiyev planned to reactivate the "The Forest Brothers" and prepared terror acts in a bid to disrupt life in Azerbaijan, investigators said.