Baku: An Azerbaijani soldier shot dead two
fellow troops and wounded a third before killing himself, the
defence ministry said on Wednesday, in the latest shooting rampage to
hit the ex-Soviet republic.
"On June 29 soldier Djafar Mamedrzayev shot two fellow
servicemen with a submachine gun before killing himself.
Another soldier has been wounded," the ministry said in a
statement a day after the shootings.
No further details were immediately available. The
ministry said it had launched an investigation into the
incident.
The killings were the fourth mass shooting in Azerbaijan
in under a year and the third within the military.
In a similar shooting last January, two Azerbaijani
soldiers shot and killed four fellow servicemen before killing
themselves.
In a 2008 report, the International Crisis Group said
Azerbaijan`s military was plagued by "endemic corruption,
nepotism and hazing".
Azerbaijani military prosecutors in 2008 arrested two
sergeants and reprimanded several senior officers after videos
surfaced on the Internet of conscript soldiers being savagely
beaten.
Authorities however have denied that hazing is widespread
in the military.
PTI
