Tajiks say 5 foreign terrorists killed in clash

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Five militants were killed in a gunfight at a remote military checkpoint near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan, officials said Monday.

Law enforcement agencies issued a joint statement Monday claiming the perpetrators of the attack, which happened Thursday, were suspected terrorists with Russian citizenship. The statement said two of the attackers, aged between 20 and 26, were from Russia's largely Muslim southern fringe, which is beset by daily violence blamed on Islamist insurgents. Regarding the others, one was ethnic Kazakh, one hailed from Tatarstan in Russia, and another was an ethnic Russian, the statement said.

No evidence that they were terrorists was offered, and no terrorist organization was named.

But the attack was a sign that foreign fighters may be contributing to worsening security Tajikistan, an ex-Soviet nation, and appeared to underscore increasing concerns about the difficulties in protecting its borders. The mountainous Central Asian nation shares a poorly protected, 1,300-kilometer (830-mile) border with Afghanistan.

"All the individuals neutralized were members of an organized terrorist group and were in possession of firearms, including Kalashnikov assault rifles, cartridges of various calibers, and grenades," the Interior Ministry and the State National Security Services said in a joint statement released Monday.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gvoRNetR0vpHFPGh49pmWLkb8-YgD99I5OAG1

[cosmicone]

1. They were probably Pakistani n/t

[Flaneur]

2. Of course you would say that. Any evidence to back that claim?

[cosmicone]

4. Tajikistan and India are regional allies ...

India has military bases in Tajikistan.

Ahmad Shah Masood was a Tajik and was deposed (and later assassinated) by the ISI because of his friendly relations with India.

Do the math Einstein.

[Alamuti Lotus]

5. As usual your conspiratorial obsession is far off the mark

The statement said two of the attackers, aged between 20 and 26, were from Russia's largely Muslim southern fringe, which is beset by daily violence blamed on Islamist insurgents. Regarding the others, one was ethnic Kazakh, one hailed from Tatarstan in Russia, and another was an ethnic Russian, the statement said.

[ohio2007]

3. maybe they were carrying wedding invitations. nt