8 September 2008
AssA-Irada

The leader of a ring who staged the recent explosion at a mosque in Baku has been killed in Daghestan, the Russian republic’s interior ministry said.

Ilgar Mollachiyev, known as “The Emir of Daghestan people" among militants, and two other individuals were neutralized in a special operation. The car driven by the militants had been surrounded and they were killed while showing armed resistance to the law enforcers. The same source said Mollachiyev’s armed group includes up to 40 members, including three who are wanted under a federal search in Russia. The militants have killed three police officers and two civilians this year. In August, several members of the ring crossed over to Azerbaijan’s territory and a special operation was conducted to nab them. Azerbaijani law enforcers have proven that these persons 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 serves, predominantly, followers of Wahhabism.

An operation is currently underway in Derbend to seize the other members of the ring. Earlier reports said the ring consisted of two groups. One of the groups, "the Sumgayit community", was to commit robberies in Baku and to acquire arms on account of the obtained 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 woods.

On Saturday, three residents of the town of Gusar were killed in a special operation conducted by Azerbaijani law enforcers, the National Security Ministry and Prosecutor General’s Office said in a new statement regarding the Abu Bakr blast. They were suspected of complicity in the explosion and being associated with the "The Forest Brothers" gang. One of them 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 declared a search for him.

During the operation to seize the ring members, large quantities of weapons were impounded, including pistols, bullets, cold weapons, as well as a tent, maps, a compass, military instruction manuals, medicine, cash worth $15,700 and 460 manats and two radio products of the Yaesu Japan brand.

Law enforcement officers sustained no casualties or injuries during the operation, the statement said. According to a testimony provided earlier, Mollachiyev, his brother-in-law, Samir Mehdiyev, and their accomplices had illegally crossed Azerbaijan's border and settled down in the capital 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 other individuals charged with setting up an illegal armed group linked to the Al-Qaeda and Al-Jihad terror groups, were handed down jail sentences late in July.

After members of the gang based in the city of Sumgayit were arrested, Mollachiyev planned to restore the activity of the "The Forest Brothers" and masterminded terror acts, in a bid to disrupt socio-political stability in Azerbaijan, investigators said.