Azerbaijan’s air force chief killed
Azeri commander shot dead by unknown assailants in capital Baku.
Published On 11 Feb 2009
Oil rich Azerbaijan is part of the strategically important but fragile South Caucasus where Russia and the US are still competing for influence.
The ex-Soviet republic hosts a pipeline pumping Caspian Sea oil to world markets.
Azerbaijan is locked in a dispute with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region where ethnic Armenian separatists threw off Azeri rule in a 1990s war that killed about 35,000 people.
The two countries are technically still at war.
Rzayev headed Azerbaijan’s air force since 1992.
Source: News Agencies