By Haaretz

Azerbaijan's national security agency announced on Tuesday that it has arrested several activists belonging to the Iranian intelligence service and Hezbollah. The operatives are suspected of planning terrorist attacks against foreigners in the capital Baku.

The state-owned television channel reported that the suspects began gathering intelligence and bought explosives, guns and ammunition.




Last month, three men were detained after planning to attack two Israelis employed by a Jewish school in Baku.
The Azeri ministry said at the time that it had arrested a cell that planned to "kill public activists," before it became apparent that the intended victims were two Israeli Chabad emissaries, a rabbi and a teacher employed by the "Chabad Or Avner" Jewish school in Baku. The government said that the three men, named as Rasim Aliyev, Ali Huseynov and Balaqardash Dadashov, received smuggled arms and equipment from Iranian agents. The action was apparently planned as retaliation to the gunning down of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Last week, an Iranian man was seriously wounded in Bangkok when a bomb he was carrying exploded and blew one of his legs off. Shortly before, there had been an explosion in a house the man was renting in the Ekamai area of central Bangkok, government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisaeng told reporters.

The blasts came a day after a twin bomb attack targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia. Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind those attacks. Iran denied involvement in the New Delhi and Tbilisi bombs.







http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/azerbaijan-iranian-hezbollah-operatives-arrested-for-plotting-attack-against-foreign-targets-1.414008






Photo: City of Baku, Azerbaijan