Azerbaijan kills head of al-qaida-linked group

BAKU (Reuters) – Security forces in Azerbaijan killed the head of a group it said was linked to al-qaida and arrested 19 of his followers, in the latest swoop against Islamist terrorism in the oil-rich state, the government said on Wednesday.

“An armed group, which was planning... terrorist attacks aimed to violate political stability in Azerbaijan was neutralized in a special operation, which was conducted in several regions of the country,” the National Security Ministry said.

The alleged leader of the group, identified as Azeri citizen Vugar Padarov, was killed during the raid when he resisted arrest, the ministry said, without giving further details. He had supplied members of the group with weapons and bombs, it added.

Those arrested had been trained in Iran, Syria and Pakistan, and some had fought against NATO troops in Afghanistan, the ministry said.

Last July, Azerbaijan jailed 17 members of a group it said was linked to al-qaida, to between five years and life.

And last month, security forces arrested several Azeris and Iranians on suspicion of spying for Iran, plotting to attack Western targets and smuggling arms from Iran into Azerbaijan.

Most of Azerbaijan’s 9 million people are Shi’ite, but the government under President Ilham Aliyev is strictly secular and an ally of both the United States and Russia.

The country will host the Eurovision song contest in May and security measures have been strengthened ahead of the event.

The majority of Azeris take a relaxed attitude towards religion, but officials say Islam’s influence in the country is growing.

Sandwiched between Iran, Russia and Turkey, Azerbaijan sells oil and gas to the West from reserves in the Caspian Sea.