
Armed attack on Azerbaijan's border crossing with Iran

On March 10, a fatal incident occurred on the border between Azerbaijan and Iran. According to Azerbaijani media reports, an armed group from Iran attempted to approach the "Horadis" border point in the morning hours. The group has opened fire in reaction to warning shots fired by the Azerbaijani border guards, according to the statement of the border guards of Azerbaijan. In the gunfight one Azerbaijani soldier was killed and another injured. The members of the group then withdrew to Iranian territory.
The most recent deadly clash at the border occurred one day after the visit of Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadjarov to Teheran. The fact that the incident has a political background, however, seems unlikely given the numerous armed incidents at the border in the past. Just recently, on February 11, 2019, Azerbaijani border guards shot and killed a man attempting to cross the border illegally. This was an Azerbaijani citizen.
There are regular reports of attempts by criminals to smuggle drugs through the Iranian-Azerbaijani border as the drug route from Afghanistan to Europe passes through Iran and the South Caucasus. Most recently, the Azerbaijani authorities confiscated more than 200 kilograms of heroin on the Iranian border in July 2018. The smugglers are said to have planned to transport the drugs further to Ukraine.
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