Authorities in Azerbaijan said they had arrested three people who were allegedly planning an attack on a foreign embassy in the capital Baku, on instructions from the Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the Afghan branch of the Islamic State.
A statement from the State Security Service said that the three men, named by the service, were in collusion with ISIS-K members, acquired weapons and planned an attack on a foreign embassy before being detained by security forces, Reuters reports.
The statement did not specify which embassy was involved. One of the suspects was born in 2000, and the other two in 2005.
The Islamic State - Khorasan, or ISIS-K, claimed responsibility for the 2024 attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, which killed at least 145 people.
In the predominantly Muslim regions of Russia, where the group is designated a banned terrorist organization, as well as in Central Asia, multiple plots linked to the Islamic State have been thwarted.
Azerbaijan, a South Caucasus country with a population of about 10 million, bordering Russia and Iran, is a secular state with a majority Muslim population, most of whom are Shiite.
Azerbaijani authorities said the suspects were arrested for "preparing a terrorist act" based on religious hatred. They added that an investigation is ongoing.
In a separate case, an Azerbaijani court sentenced a man linked to ISIS-K to 13 years in prison for terrorism in October last year, after he was found guilty of planning an attack on a synagogue in Baku with a Molotov cocktail in December 2024.
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