TEHRAN
A man armed with a Kalashnikov- style rifle stormed the Azerbaijan Embassy in Iran’s capital Friday, killing the head of security at the political post and wounding two guards, authorities said.
Tehran’s police chief, Gen. Hossein Rahimi, criticized the attack on “ particular and family problems, ” according to Iranian state TV. still, the assault comes as pressures have been high for months between bordering Azerbaijan and Iran.
Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said it would void its political charge, criminating Iran of not taking reported pitfalls against it seriously in history. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities replaced Rahimi as police principal hours latterly after footage surfaced that appeared to show a police officer doing nothing to stop the attack.
Videotape purportedly from the scene of the attack showed an empty political police post just near the delegacy, with one man supposedly wounded in an SUV situated outdoors. Inside the delegacy past an essence sensor, paramedics stood over what appeared to be a breathless body in a small office as blood pooled on the bottom beneath.
A statement from Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry said that “a disquisition is presently underway into this unfaithful attack. ” The ministry also described the bushwhacker as destroying a guard post with assault rifle fire before being stopped by the wounded guards, whom authorities described as being in a “ satisfactory ” condition after being shot.
Still, the ministry said a “recent anti-Azerbaijani crusade against our country in Iran has encouraged similar attacks against our political charge. ”
“ There have been attempts to hang our politic charge in Iran before, and measures to help similar situations and to insure the safety of our politic operations have been constantly raised before Iran, ” the ministry said. “ Unfortunately, the last bloody terrorist attack demonstrates the serious consequences of not showing proper perceptivity to our critical prayers in this direction. ”
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev called the attack a “ terrorist act. ”
“ A terrorist attack against politic operations is inferior! ” He said in a statement.
Iranian state television had quoted Rahimi as saying the marksman had entered the delegacy with his two children during the attack. Still, surveillance footage from inside the delegacy released in Azerbaijan, which matched details of the other videotape of the fate and bore a timestamp matching the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry’s statement, showed the markswomen burst through the delegacy’s doors alone.
Those inside tried to push through essence sensors to take cover. The man opens fire with the rifle, its nib flashing, as he chases after the men into the small side office. Another man bursts from a side door and fights the marksman for the rifle as the footage ends.
Another surveillance videotape from outside the delegacy which also corresponded to the same details showed the marksman slam his auto into another in front of the delegacy. The marksman also got out and levelled his rifle at a figure inside of the Iranian police stage, probably a police guard, who stood still and did nothing as the man stormed the delegacy.
The delegacy’s frontal door was pocked with pellet holes after the attack.
Iranian prosecutor Mohammad Shahriari reportedly said that the marksman’s woman had faded in April after a visit to the delegacy. The Iranian bar’s Mizan news agency quoted Shahriari as saying the marksman believed his woman
was still in the delegacy at the time of the attack — indeed though it was some eight months latterly.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanaani, also said his country explosively condemned the attack, which was under disquisition with “ high precedence and perceptivity. ”
Azerbaijan borders Iran’s northwest. There have been pressures between the two countries as Azerbaijan and Armenia have fought over the Nagorno- Karabakh region.
Iran in October launched a military exercise near the Azerbaijan border, flexing its martial might amid the civil demurrers rocking the Islamic Republic. Azerbaijan also maintains close ties to Israel, which Tehran views as its top indigenous adversary. The Islamic Republic and Israel are locked in an ongoing shadow war as Iran’s nuclear program fleetly enriches uranium near than ever to munitions-grade situations.
Turkey, which has close ties to Azerbaijan, condemned the attack and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice and for measures to be put in place to help analogous attacks in the future. Turkey has backed Azerbaijan against Armenia over Nagorno- Karabakh.
“ Turkey, which has been subordinated to analogous attacks in history, deeply shares the pain of the Azerbaijani people, ” a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said. “ Fraternal Azerbaijan isn’t alone. Our support of Azerbaijan will continue without interruption, as it always has. ”
