Security of synagogues, public institutions and industrial facilities is enhanced in Baku due to IS attack calls
Baku has enhanced security of synagogues due to the possible terrorist attacks of militants of the "Islamic state" (IS) on the administrative and industrial facilities in Azerbaijan, reports the "Jewish News Agency" (AEN).
As stated in the article security measures in all public institutions, industrial facilities and transportation hubs in the city are also strengthened. "In particular, stationary and mobile metal detectors have increasingly started to be used," the agency emphasizes.
As noted in the article, the increasing level of terrorist threats in Azerbaijan is connected with calls of the so-called "interior minister" of IS Abdul Waheed Khudayar Ahmad to militants of IS "to make armed attacks on members of the government of Azerbaijan, supported by the West," to seize the oil fields and infrastructure in the capital of the republic.
Agency reminds that since the mid-1990s the synagogues in Baku have been protected by the police, and now, in regard with the terrorist threat shown by the IS, the strangers can enter to the Jewish worship houses only with the permission of the board members of religious Jewish communities of Azerbaijan.
Yesterday it became known that "Interior Minister" of the "Islamic state" Abdul Waheed Ahmad Khudayar of IS collected mercenaries from Azerbaijan, praised and encouraged them to take up arms against the government of the country, "supported by the West." According to the article, the European edition “Another Western Dawn News”, IS starts making plans to destabilize the situation in the former Soviet republics, in particular in Azerbaijan, where "hundreds of people flock to Syria to participate in the war against the President Bashar al-Assad."
Note that Azerbaijani Salafis or Wahhabis are fighting in the ranks of various terrorist groupings that operate in Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. According to the Azerbaijani news agency Vesti.az the total number of Azerbaijani terrorists in these countries equals to 300. Whereas according to FaktHeber Azerbaijani portal over the past three years only in Syria almost 200 Azerbaijani terrorists were killed.
The relationship between international terrorist groups and Azerbaijan originated in the early 1990s. That time, the Azerbaijani army, having failed in the aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), retreated with losses. Trying to save the situation, the Azerbaijani leadership, headed by Heydar Aliyev attracted to the war against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh international terrorists and members of radical groups from Afghanistan (groupings of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), Turkey ("Grey Wolves", etc.), Chechnya (groupings Basayev and Raduyev etc.) and some other regions.
Despite the involvement in of thousands of foreign mercenaries and terrorists in the Azerbaijani army during the war, the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh Republic failed, and the Baku authorities were forced to sign an armistice with the NKR and Armenia. However, international terrorists found ties in Azerbaijan, and used them in the future. Recruitment was conducted among Azerbaijanis, who then were sent to Afghanistan and the North Caucasus, where participated in the battles against the forces of the international coalition and Russian organizations. In recent years, the citizens of Azerbaijan are actively involved in terrorist and extremist activities in Russia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.