Tajikistan Border Clash

[Haris]

Dozens Killed as Tajikistan Army Clashes
with Insurgents Near Afghanistan





More than 40 insurgents and 12 Tajikistan army soldiers were killed in
a massive operation of the Tajikistan government against insurgents
based near border with Afghanistan.


The Tajik government said that 12 soldiers and 40 militants were killed
during the operation launched in the Gorno-Badakhshan province.


Tajik local officials said that the commander of a special forces unit and
eight Afghan insurgents were among the dead.


Tajikistan's chief military prosecutor Khairullo Saidov was wounded in the
foot during the fighting, the official said.


The military operation is continuing through Wednesday.


It was launched after Abdullo Nazarov, a general with Tajikistan's national
intelligence service, was stabbed to death Saturday in Ishkashim, some 520
kilometers east of the capital, Dushanbe.



http://www.tolonews.com/en/afghanist...ar-afghanistan

[Khostai]

-_- Who are this militants? Are they like Taliban or something else.

[ComradePashtun]

Drug cartel mostly probably. Tajik dissidents (ex Tajik Mujahideed) is a probability too. But the involvement of Afghans points it out to the be a drug cartel that operates there.

[Tjanaparh]

The issue is on Drug trafic, power gangs and power division. These are problems inside the Tajik army.

[Haris]

Kabul hopes Tajikistan border to reopen
soon



KABUL (PAN): Afghanistan on Sunday voiced the hope that Tajikistan would soon
reopen the border crossings it sealed last week due to a military operation to detain a
former warlord.


On Tuesday, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon ordered an offensive in the autonomous
region of Gorno-Badakhshan against supporters of Talib Aiombekov, charged with killing
a senior security official.


Tajik authorities sealed off the border after eight Afghan militants, who were fighting
for Aiombekov, were captured by security personnel. They fear Taliban-linked
insurgents were sneaking into the former Soviet republic to support the ex-warlord.


A foreign ministry spokesman, addressing a weekly media briefing in Kabul on Sunday,
hoped the border would reopen once the security operation came to an end.


Janan Musazai referred to a recent visit by senior Afghan officials, including Interior
Minister Bismillah Mohammadi and the National Directorate of Security chief, to
Dushanbe. The delegation assured their Tajik interlocutors of all-out help in enforcing
security and defeating terrorists.


Military officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan would meet soon on ways of effectively
preventing cross-border incursions into eastern parts of the country, the spokesman
said.


Hundreds of people have been killed, wounded and displaced as a result of rocket and
missile strikes, as well as artillery shelling, from Pakistani territory into border towns of
eastern Kunar province over the past one year.


Musazai said that army commanders from the two countries would meet in Jalalabad,
the capital of Nangarhar, to sort out the issue. However, he gave no specific date for
the meeting.


Musazai quoted President Hamid Karzai as saying that problems occasionally erupted in
areas along the border, known as Durand Line. But attacks from the neighbouring
country were in no way acceptable to Afghanistan, he hastened to add.


The foreign ministry had been doing all it could at the diplomatic level to put a
permanent halt to the incursions, he said, recalling last week’s protest that was
lodged with Islamabad on continued missile and rocket strikes.


Deputy Foreign Minister Javed Lodin communicated Afghanistan’s concerns over the
incursions to Pakistan Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq. The National Security Council
also took up the issue at last week’s meeting, chaired by President Karzai.




http://www.pajhwok.com/en/2012/07/29...er-reopen-soon

[Haris]

Tolib Ayombekov is a militant opposition politician and warlord in Tajikistan and
alleged militia leader involved in the Gorno-Badakhshan clashes in 2012 against the
government forces of ruling Tajik president Emomalii Rahmon.


Ayombekov had been a warlord during the 1992 to 1997 Tajik Civil War between the
United Tajik Opposition and the government led by President Rahmon Nabiyev. As part
of subsequent peace deal between the opposing sides, Ayombekov was given a
government post. However, Ayombekov and many other Tajik warlords were gradually
driven out. Emomalii Rahmon's government has also accused Ayombekov of tobacco
smuggling.


After Major-General Abdullo Nazarov, the head of the Tajik intelligence agency "GKNB"
in the local semi-autonomous province of Gorno-Badakhshan, was dragged out of his
car,[1][2] and was fatally stabbed in an incident in Ishkashim[3][4], heavy fighting
erupted on 24 July 2012 between government forces and militants loyal to Ayombekov
in the streets of Khorog.[3]. The Western media described the fighting as the worst in
Tajikistan since 2010[5][6] or the 1992–1997 civil war.[7] Ayombekov denied any
responsibility for Nazarov's death.[5][6]




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolib_Ayombekov