20/09/2010 12:11
At least 40 dead in attack on military convoy in Tajikistan
At least 40 soldiers of the Tajik Defense Ministry were killed and 10 others were wounded Sunday in an attack in the Rasht district of Tajikistan, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing local media and a source in the Tajikistan government.
A spokesperson for the Tajik Defense Ministry said before that 23 soldiers were killed and 10 others were wounded.
The soldiers' military convoy of 75 people was heading to an outpost in Rasht district, some 180 kilometers eastern from Dushanbe, to carry out a military operation against criminals who were hiding after they escaped on August 23 from a detention facility.
The Defense Ministry of Tajikistan has issued a statement reading that the attack was committed by a criminal gang headed by one of the most intransigent oppositional leaders in the region, Mullo Abdullo, who didn’t stop fighting after the civil war of 1992-1997s ended.