20 soldiers are killed in clash with warlord

Published on 25/07/2012 00:00

Twenty government soldiers were killed in Tajikistan yesterday after clashing with an armed group led by a former warlord accused by the government of being involved in the killing of a senior intelligence officer.

The fighting marked one of the worst outbursts of violence in Tajikistan since a 2010 government campaign to wipe out Islamist militants in another region. It threatens to undermine stability in the impoverished ex-Soviet nation, bringing back memories of a five-year civil war that raged in the 1990s.

A security services official said the clash occurred in the mountainous semi-autonomous Gorno-Badakhshan province, bordering Afghanistan. One of those killed was the commander of a special forces unit, he said.

The operation was launched after General Abdullo Nazarov was stabbed to death on Saturday.