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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Kyrgyz forces arrest Taliban-linked militants
2009-07-19
Kyrgyz security forces have arrested a group of suspected militants coordinating a logistics supply network for Taliban insurgents fighting US forces in nearby Afghanistan, domestic media reported. Security analysts say the surge of US troops in Afghanistan, and Pakistan's offensive against militants in the Tribal Areas, may have forced some Taliban fighters of Central Asian origin to trickle back into the former Soviet region.
Really? A fascinating admission by the Daily Times of Pakistan.
For "Taliban" read "al-Qaeda in Afghanistan" or simply "al-Qaeda in Pakistan."
"al-Qaeda in the Greater Pakistan area"?
Kyrgyzstan's 24.kg news agency reported that the state security agency had arrested 18 suspected militants who used to fight alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan and were now involved in sending supplies to Afghanistan and other logistical matters. It said in a report late on Friday that the group included citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Central Asia, a vast strategic region between Russia, China, Afghanistan and Iran, is also a key transit route for supplies headed for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Governments in Central Asia have blamed the latest attacks on the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a group whose militants have long fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan.
IMB has "fought alongside" the Talibs, but they're a separate, al-Qaeda-affiliated organization.
In the latest in a series of attacks on security forces across the region, Tajik forces killed five gunmen in a shootout near Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan. In another clash, Kyrgyz security forces killed three men they described as extremists in a gun battle in the Ferghana valley, Central Asia's most densely populated area.
Posted by:Fred

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