Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said on Thursday that the incident indicates the vulnerability of Central Asia to such terrorist activities.
The attack in Aktobe “shows the necessity for cooperation among regional countries to counter extremism and its intellectual and political origins in a comprehensive and integrated [way].”
On June 5, unidentified gunmen attacked two gun shops and a military unit in Aktobe, killing seven people and injuring 37 others, most of them servicemen.
Thirteen assailants were killed, nine were arrested in a counter-terror operation in the city, with six criminals still at large.
A red terrorist threat level was put in place in Aktobe while a moderate yellow one was declared elsewhere across the country for 40 days.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Wednesday that the Aktobe attacks had been organized by supporters of radical, pseudo-religious teachings who were instructed from abroad. He vowed to use the toughest measures to “suppress extremists and terrorists.”
