"Tajikistan army clashes with rebels; dozens killed" by Olga Tutubalina | Associated Press, July 25, 2012
DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Tajik government forces unleashed a massive operation Tuesday against a rebel group in apparent retaliation for the fatal stabbing of a top security official, triggering clashes that killed dozens.
The government said 12 government troops and 30 militants were killed. However, a security services official said that about 20 government troops were killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The fighting marked one of the worst outbursts of violence in Tajikistan since a 2010 government campaign to wipe out Islamist militants in another region. It threatens to undermine stability in the impoverished ex-Soviet nation bordering Afghanistan to the north, reviving the specter of a devastating five-year civil war that ravaged the country in the 1990s.
The clashes occurred in the mountainous semiautonomous Gorno-Badakhshan Province bordering Afghanistan.
One of those killed was the commander of a special forces unit, the security services official said.
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