From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Thu Aug 17 2000 - 11:38:01 EDT
DEATH TOLL IN CLASHES WITH MILITANTS UNCLEAR
Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Djanuzakov said on 16 August that a total
of 18 Kyrgyz government troops have been killed and 11
wounded since the first incursion last week, Reuters
reported. But local officials in Batken Oblast in the south
of Kyrgyzstan told RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau that 26 Kyrgyz
servicemen are either dead or missing. Uzbek Defense Ministry
spokesmen told Interfax on 16 August that 12 servicemen have
been killed or died from wounds since the Islamists launched
their attack in early August. The Uzbek Prosecutor-General's Office has begun a
criminal investigation into the attack on Uzbek territory,
Interfax reported. Meanwhile Tajik intelligence has handed
over to Uzbekistan an IMU member detained in Tajikistan's
northern Leninabad Oblast and wanted in Uzbekistan on
suspicion of involvement in the February 1999 bombings in
Tashkent, ITAR-TASS reported. LF
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