Viewing results 1 - 6 of 128
DUSHANBE (TCA) — At least 50 inmates were killed in a prison riot in Tajikistan last week, sources have told RFE/RL's Tajik Service, doubling the death toll in violence that the government has said almost nothing about publicly. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — After an initial denial, Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security says that the authorities have arrested 12 people suspected of plotting an attack on the Russian military base in Dushanbe earlier in November, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed that one of its "fighters" was responsible for starting the deadly prison riot in northern Tajikistan on November 7, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reported. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — The Islamic State terrorist organization (Daesh) is on the rise in Afghanistan and the group's numbers could soon grow to up to 10,000 members in the war-torn country, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said during the Security Council meeting on September 17, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reports. Continue reading
DUSHANBE (TCA) — Tajikistan recently witnessed the first-ever terrorist attack claimed by the Islamic State in the country and entire Central Asia region. And it remains to be seen whether such incidents will ever occur in the future. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by James Pothecary, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Monitor: Introduction A sedan struck seven foreign cyclists riding through Tajikistan’s Danghara district on July 29. Despite initial confused reports that it was nothing more than a car accident, grainy footage quickly emerged of the vehicle’s driver deliberately swerving to hit the bikers. A group of men then “exited the car and stabbed the cyclists with knives,” according to the United States Embassy in Dushanbe. Within minutes, four cyclists—two American, one Dutch and one Swiss—were dead, with several more injured. The Tajikistani government mobilized rapidly and decisively. After identifying the likely location of the suspects based on the car’s license plate, a major law enforcement operation began. The exact circumstances are unclear, but four of the suspects were shot dead during the arrest and several others taken into custody. This was announced in a statement from the Tajikistan Interior Ministry, which included pictures of both the deceased and the detained. Responsibility Almost immediately, the government blamed the shattered political opposition, the Islamic National Renaissance Party (INRP) for the attack. The event was seized on as a chance to legitimize their suppression of the group. Citing a confession allegedly extracted from one of the detained men, authorities have sought to suppress any journalistic investigation into the incident that might lead to a different conclusion—that the attack was, in fact, linked to the Islamic State (IS) (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, August 2). The evidence seems to favor this hypothesis. IS, having already claimed responsibility for the attack, released a video showing five young, Russian-speaking men pledging allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (Jihadology, July 31). These individuals appear to match the photos of the suspects published by Tajikistan’s own interior ministry, although a formal identification has not been made. Furthermore, the modus operandi of the attack is a clear fulfillment of the command issued in the very first issue of IS’ online magazine Rumiyah in September 2016: Stab them, shoot them, poison them, and run them down with your vehicles’ (Jihadology, September 2016). This phrase has been heeded by the global jihadist community. Militants launching attacks in France, Sweden and the United Kingdom, among others, have similarly used vehicles as a weapon. Difficult to detect and deadly effective, it should be of no surprise that this trend has spread to the Central Asian steppes. Typicality An attack against tourists is extremely atypical in Central Asia, where political violence of this kind is almost unheard of. However, Central Asian—particularly Uzbek and Tajik—fighters have earned themselves a fearsome reputation in the jihadist communities of Afghanistan and the Levant. Groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, formed from the chaos of a disintegrating Soviet Union, have acted as incubators...
KABUL (TCA) — Afghan authorities say the head of Islamic State militants in Afghanistan has been killed in a strike on the group's hideouts in Nangarhar Province, RFE/RL reported. Continue reading
