Seven killed in Kazakhstan gun battles

AN ISLAMIST militant killed seven people in running battles with security forces in a southern Kazakh city yesterday, the latest in a series of attacks on the oil-producing Central Asian state.

The 34-year-old “follower of jihadism” killed four members of the security forces and two civilians in gun battles in the city of Taraz, before firing a grenade launcher at a military building. He blew himself up when cornered, killing another policeman.

A string of blasts and shootouts, including one last month claimed by a hitherto unknown Islamist militant group, has unnerved the authorities and population of the former Soviet republic, a mainly Muslim nation of nearly 17 million that has seen little violence in recent years.