Iranian hitmen injure pro-Israel Azerbaijan leader Mustafa Fazil

Mustafa Fazil, leader of Azerbaijan’s Great Order Party, was badly injured in a shooting as he exited party HQ in Baku on Wednesday, punishment for the opening of an embassy in Israel and a visit by its foreign minister. The Azeri Islamic Resistance Movement claimed the attack, vowing to “clean and expel the Zionist herd from Azerbaijan.” On Monday, security forces arrested 7 suspected foreign agents plotting hits against senior government officials in Baku. Two days later, five gangs of 46 men were taken into custody over a plot by Iranian drug smugglers to establish footholds in Azerbaijan, which lies on the northern border of Iran.