Kyrgyzstan: Police Kill Armed Militant after Grenade Attack

Kyrgyz police officers shot dead another armed man in Osh Province, bringing to nine the number of alleged Islamic militants killed since June 23.

Acting on a tip, law enforcement personnel were searching farmland in the Uzgen District when a hand grenade was thrown at them. A gun battle ensued and the militant was killed, according to an Interior Ministry statement distributed on June 30.

Three other militants were killed in the village of Besh-Dube in the early hours of June 28 during a firefight with members of the Alfa squad from the State Committee for National Security. Those militants are suspected of having ties to five alleged militants who died in a shootout in Jalalabad on June 23.

Authorities say the dead militants were members of the Isamic Jihad Union, believed to be a splinter group of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The group claimed responsibility for the May 26 terrorism incidents in neighboring Uzbekistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].