1 killed in shooting at Azerbaijan embassy in Iran
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A man armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle targeted the embassy at 8.30am Baku time, the ministry said.
PHOTO: PIXABAY
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TEHERAN - Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said several security personnel were killed and wounded after its embassy in the Iranian capital came under an unprecedented attack.
The chief of guard at the Azerbaijani diplomatic compound in Teheran died and two other members of the embassy’s security staff were hurt when it was targeted on Friday morning, the Foreign Ministry in Baku said in an e-mailed statement.
“The attacker broke through the guard post, killing the head of security with a Kalashnikov assault rifle,” the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry said.
An investigation was launched, a Foreign Ministry statement said, describing the condition of the two injured as “satisfactory”.
A man armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle targeted the embassy at 8.30am Baku time, the ministry said, without giving further details.
The first-ever armed attack on an Azerbaijani diplomatic mission in Iran comes amid growing tensions between the two majority Shi’ite neighbours around a number of regional issues.
These include Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel and its conflict with Armenia over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Following Friday’s incident, Azerbaijan said it was evacuating staff from its embassy in Teheran.
“All responsibility for the attack lies with Iran,” foreign ministry spokesman Ayxan Hacizada told local media, saying a recent anti-Azerbaijani campaign in Iranian media had “encouraged the attack”.
He later told Turkish TRT Haber TV station that the embassy staff “are being evacuated from Iran”. BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AFP
