30 January 2010 / REUTERS, BAKU
Two soldiers in Azerbaijan shot dead four fellow servicemen and then killed themselves on Thursday at a military base in the former Soviet republic, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said two other soldiers were wounded but that the motive behind the shooting was not clear. It gave no further details.The opposition Baku daily Azadlig reported that the shooting took place in western Dashkesan region of Azerbaijan, a tightly-controlled mainly Muslim country that exports oil and gas from reserves in the Caspian Sea. The newspaper said the unit’s commander was among the dead but the Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report.
Analysts say reform of the military has failed to keep pace with huge increases in defense spending on the back of oil revenues aimed at tipping the balance in the festering conflict over the Armenian-backed breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
