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The southern Caucasus state has seen political turmoil and repeated attacks on opposition figures and protesters in the months since Georgia's contested elections in late October.

For most of its existence, Al Qaeda was a roving band of jihadists that traveled from battlefield to battlefield, stretching from the Balkans to the Caucasus to South Asia.

Almost as distant is the North Caucasus, where Chechnya is located, which has also been targeted previously by Ukraine.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has been targeting Chechnya and other parts of the Russian Caucasus with drone strikes.

The Azerbaijan Airlines plane, an Embraer 190, was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus before it attempted an emergency landing.