Militants kill 23 in Tajikistan convoy ambush

Heavily armed Islamic militants ambushed a military convoy in eastern Tajikistan, killing at least 23 soldiers and dealing a severe blow to the impoverished nation on Afghanistan's poorly secured northern border.

The ambush was the deadliest attack on security forces in years and underscores the dangers Islamic militants pose.

The country, which shares a 830-mile porous border with Afghanistan, is still reeling from its five-year civil war in the 1990s that pitted a loose coalition of Islamic fighters and nationalists against former Soviet functionaries. The hostilities left about 100,000 people dead.

The convoy was attacked about 50 miles north of the Afghan border. The Defence ministry said the attackers, which included militants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Russia's volatile southern region of Chechnya, were led by Mullo Abdullo, a radical Islamic commander who took part in the civil war.