Tajik Forces Move Against Illegal Armed Gangs In Operation

Special Operation Continues in Eastern Tajikistan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avesta.Tj | 25.07.2012 |

The situation in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, where is a special operation of government forces against the illegal armed gangs, remains difficult.

 

As the “Avesta” was told by a source in the power structures of the republic on condition of anonymity, the battles which were yesterday in the city of Khorog, “smoothly” move outside the city.

 

According to the source, about 6-8 gangs were against the government forces, the number of each of them is from 60 to 90 people.

 

According to unconfirmed reports there is accumulation of a large number of armed men in neighboring Afghanistan.

 

The night before the Interior Ministry and National Security Committee released official data on the first day of the operation in Khorog, according to which, during the fighting 30 members of this illegal crime group were killed and 40 were detained, 8 citizens of Afghanistan among them. 100 items of firearms were seized.

 

Officially, 12 law enforcers were killed and 23 were wounded in the operation. There are no casualties among civilians, – noted in a joint statement of the Interior Ministry and National Security Committee.

Ismaili Shiites In the Badakhshan Conflict Zone

[Is there significance in the fact that this Tajik military operation was against the Pamirs of Eastern Tajikistan, who are primarily Ismailis, another form of Shia Islam?  If this is significant, then it certainly implies that this was an operation requested by the American administration, or done to find favor with the Western leaders.  If so, then it suggests that the Rahmon regime has thrown-in Tajikistan's lot with the United States.  This would further suggest that Russia is on the verge of losing its 201st Motorized Division's base in Dushanbe.  Stay tuned.  Things could turn very ugly, very quickly, from here on out.  With the eviction of Russian MTS from Uzbekistan, we know even less than usual about the situation there (conflicting reports claim large protests taking place in Andijan).  Fergana Valley may be about to burn.]

Tajikistan: The special operation in Badakhshan can provoke serious opposition to the regime Rahmon

fergana

 

The situation in the Gorno-Badakhshan is changing every hour. In fourteen hours local time, should have ended the truce concluded yesterday between government troops and militants. However, in the morning an agreement had been violated: in Khorog (the center of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast) unknown snipers shot and killed seven civilians – four children, two men and a woman. When the truce came to an end, the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rakhmonov signed a decree on the full cease-fire in Khorog.

Unlawful killing as a pretext to raid

The official reason for the raid in the Gorno-Badakhshan was the murder of Gen. Abdullah Nazarov – Head of Regional Department of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS). According to the official version, the incident occurred in the suburb of Khorog, when the general returned to the official car of the district center Ishkashim (Ishkashim – a village on the banks of the Panj River on the border with Afghanistan).The car was allegedly stopped by Nazarov group of unknown people, who pulled out of the general car and struck him several times with a knife, then fled. It was reported that at the time of the attack near the Nazarov were two employees of the National Security Committee of the “Alpha”, but they could not protect him. The blame for the murder was assigned to the illegal armed formation, which is headed by Deputy Chief Ishkashim Tolib Ayembekov border detachment. According to the National Security Committee and the Interior Ministry, the group has for a long time was engaged in smuggling drugs, tobacco products, precious stones, followed by the number of serious crimes, including robbery.

Officially, it is to find and arrest the killers Nazarov, in Gorno-Badakhshan, and were introduced by the troops and armored vehicles. Khorog bombed without warning and evacuating civilians – but it brought out representatives of international organizations. As a result, special operations have been killed, according to unofficial data, more than 200 people, according toan official - 42 people. He was killed by one of the sons Ayembekova himself Tolib fled to Afghanistan.

Sources “Fergana” in Khorog, however, give his version of what happened murder. According to a person close to the structure, where the victim worked and General Nazarov and Tolib Ayembekov, it was the only crime of “dispute”. ”We were Ayembekova Nazarov and agreement on certain types of contraband goods (apparently, Nazarov,” fronting “Ayembekova – Ed.), And when there were some problems, the general Nazarov went to settle – that’s why he did not take a guard, he did not need unnecessary witnesses – the source says, “Fergana”. - But during the showdown, something went wrong and how to say it was brother Tolib Ayembekova knife and struck the general’s chest. This is exactly showdowns, there is no policy. In Gorno-Badakhshan authorities have long grown together with criminals, through the area is a large flow of contraband. “

This version explains why Tolib Ayembekov flatly refused to extradite those responsible for the death of General, as well as the official version with 20 stab wounds: the authorities are not interested in a broad investigation into relations of crime and high officials of National Security Committee, and the “gang murder” Nazarov – a good excuse for military special operations, which benefit both the authorities and drug cartels (assuming that these are two different forces). On the one hand, it may be a special operation to pacify the autonomous region, where even today there are armed groups and which has traditionally opposed Rahmon, on the other, more serious disturbances in Badakhshan, the easier it is for smugglers.

In the words of an expert on Central Asia, the international observer, “Moscow News” Arkady Dubnov, in an interview with Radio “Liberty”, “version that I know is that the killing of Abdullah Nazarov is just an excuse to deploy there is a serious large-scale military operation of government troops, to eliminate a serious threat to the regime Rahmon. In these assertions there is truth, because to find the perpetrators of the murder of Nazarov’s official Dushanbe could just started a large-scale military operation.The fact that virtually all of Badakhshan population is opposed to the central government. And trying to make Dushanbe come to confess or to give up those whom the regime considered guilty from the outset doomed to failure. Sorry for the cynicism, but I think if it were not for this reason – killing Nazarov, it would have to invent those now in power in Dushanbe. For more than a year before the presidential election in Tajikistan, where Rahmon has no serious rivals, except for the armed opposition, that it was necessary to tear a splinter. “

What is happening in Khorog?

“Fergana” contacted the chairman of the Russian Fund for Cultural Heritage, “Pamir” Mukimov Maybalievym, who said that, according to their data, resulting in a special operation, which lasted from six in the morning until six in the evening, killing about 150 people: 35-40 killed by government Troops, 30-40 people from the insurgents, and 50-60 – on the part of the civilian population. International organizations with offices in Khorog, on the eve of his men were taken out of the city – the locals was not warned.

- People are sent to the summer home of their wives and children – and now have no information from relatives, telephone blocked – said Mukim Maybaliev. - We have prepared an appeal to the Government of Tajikistan, where we ask only two things: stop the fighting and restore the connection. This morning at a rally in Khorog and the old woman came out, they also require a cessation of hostilities.

Meanwhile, the “Facebook” appeared panicky messages about what is happening in Khorog, “lamentable state of the population, lots of angry civilians were killed, the military does not allow women to bury the dead guys body, which lay in the streets, do not give to touch, many in the the verge of collapse. The military also took control of the only hospital in the city, and placed their wounded there, but their not let anyone go … “Information about” bodies, which lie in the streets, “indirectly confirmed by the words of the chairman of the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region (Badakhshan) encoding Cosimo, who commented on the disposal of Rahmon’s cease-fire: “This decision was made due to the fact that there are wounded, and on the streets can be decomposed corpses.”

Morning, July 25 Mukim Maybaliev not confirmed “Fergana” information with “Facebook”: “Forget allowed. Today in Khorog silence, till two o’clock declared a truce. “

- The facebook is the call to come to the rally to the Embassy of Tajikistan in Moscow to 18.00. This rally sanctioned?

- No. We are not talking about the rally. We will give our message to the embassy and we hope that we hear. Because if the fighting will continue, we can not keep people – but only in Moscow and the region around 35 000 people from the Gorno-Badakhshan – told M.Maybaliev.

Ismailis in Afghanistan

 

Background of Gorno-Badakhshan and Dushanbe deserves a separate story, which now is no time. We only recall that Badakhshan – an autonomous region, whose inhabitants have traditionally hurt the ratio of official Dushanbe. Badakhshan – the poor, the most vulnerable and the most problematic area of ​​Tajikistan. Pamirs differ from other ethnic Tajiks, not only: they have different national self-awareness. Recall that the majority of the indigenous inhabitants of Gorno-Badakhshan constitute

Ismailis (followers of the Shiite Muslim religious movements), whereas in other regions of Tajikistan live mostly Sunni.

Combat operations of government troops joined the Ismaili stronger than the economic interests or criminal liability: a source said, “Fergana” in Tajikistan, now dominated by a feeling among the Ismailis’ enemies came to our land and kill innocent people. “ As the “Fergana” in Afghanistan, on the border with Tajikistan, are now about 250 Ismailis – Tolib Ayembekova people who are willing to cross the border and go to the aid of fellow Muslims.

The most dangerous thing that there is a real threat: those under the banner of Tajikistan can climb many of those who are dissatisfied with the regime of Rahmon. And perhaps, the power is realized.

About an hour before the expected completion time of the armistice, Tajik President signed a decree on the complete cessation of hostilities in Khorog. In addition, it became known as the “Fergana” from their sources, Rahmon invited the Prince Aga Khan IV (the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslim community-Nizari) but it has not yet arrived.

“Fergana” continues to monitor developments in the Gorno-Badakhshan.

Maria Yanovskaya

The international news agency “Fergana”

Russia is concerned following events in Badakhshan

Avaz Yuldashev

The Russian side is concerned following events in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast of the Republic of Tajikistan (Badakhshan).

As reported on the official website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in Russia alarmed by acts of violence against members of the government of the republic, led to the raid in the south-eastern Tajikistan.

“We hope that the friendly guidance of Tajikistan will be able to put the situation under reliable control, restore public order and the rule of law in this region”, – said Russian Foreign Ministry.

It is further noted that the Russian Embassy in Dushanbe is in constant contact with the competent authorities of Tajikistan. According to the embassy, ​​registered in the consular department of the Russian citizens living in Gorno-Badakhshan, are not made.

“We believe that the Tajik authorities to take necessary measures to ensure the safety and interests of Russian citizens who may be in the area of ​​the raid,” – Foreign Minister stressed.

Recall, on July 24 in the city of Khorog was a special operation of government forces against the illegal armed gangs. According to official information, during the raid killed 42 people – 30 militants and 12 law enforcement and security agencies. It was also reported on the detention of 40 participants gangs, among which eight Afghan citizens. This morning it was announced that the full cease-fire.

Afghan authorities pull together additional troops to the border with Tajikistan

 

Avaz Yuldashev

Afghan authorities to tighten additional military forces in the direction of Badakhshan Tajik-Afghan border.

As reported by “AP”, the press service of the President, today, at the initiative of the IRA leader Hamid Karzai held a telephone conversation between the president and the president of Tajikistan, Afghanistan.

Both sides expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in the south-east of Tajikistan, in particular in the city of Khorog.

According to sources, Hamid Karzai, Emomali Rahmon said that the Afghan government additional military contracts, which will be in Afghan Badakhshan to the complete normalization of the situation on the Tajik-Afghan border.

The source said that Karzai and Rahmon agreed that the security forces and intelligence agencies of the two states will be in constant contact until after the special operation of the Tajik government forces and the normalization of the situation in the region.

Neocon-Designated “Free Syria Zone” Takes Shape In Syria’s North, As Planned

[SEE:  Neocon Plans for A Syrian Safe Area]

“Welcome to the Qurqanya google satellite map! This place is situated in Idlib, Syria, its geographical coordinates are 36° 8′ 0″ North, 36° 37′ 0″ East and its original name (with diacritics) is Qūrqānyā.”

View Larger Map

In Syria’s North, A Shadow State Emerges

by KELLY MCEVERS

Khalil Hamra/APA Free Syrian Army solider mans a checkpoint in the northern town of Ariha, on the outskirts of Idlib, Syria, June 10. In rural areas held by rebels, new institutions are cropping up to fill the void left by the receding Syrian state.

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July 25, 2012

Third of five parts

Tucked in the olive groves and rocky hills of northern Syria, the small village of Qurqanya doesn’t seem like much.

Scratch the surface, though, and you realize that this is a hub for the revolution in northern Syria, where a kind of shadow state is forming.

As the Syrian state recedes, the people in this village and villages around it are filling in the blanks with their own institutions and, for better or for worse, their own ideas about how a country should be run.

The rebels started taking control of these villages and towns a few months back, as the Syrian army focused on holding major cities.

The first thing the rebels do is take over the post office or the police station and set up shop as the local authority.

Each village or town has something different to offer the rebels. In Qurqanya, it’s a school that during the summer break can be used as a kind of media center, with a few laptops and an Internet connection.

In the next town over, it’s a hospital.

The head doctor says he might treat dozens of injured rebel fighters from all around this region in a single day. Places that treat rebels used to be totally underground — makeshift MASH units set up in people’s houses.

In many parts of Syria, it’s still like this. But more and more the rebels are coming out into the open and asserting their control.

Trying To Provide Better Governance

I’m in a truck riding with the rebels of the Free Syrian Army. And we’re doing something that just a month ago, maybe two months ago, would have been totally unheard of. We’re driving on a highway — freely, openly, during the middle of the day.

In fact, we just went through a checkpoint. It wasn’t a government checkpoint but a Free Syrian Army checkpoint. They saw who we were — a pickup truck with guys with guns in the back — and waved us through.

Driving into the next town, the town marker has been painted with the rebel flag. Once we’re in town, we can tell what that means. There is no sign of the Syrian state anywhere.

This is a major town, and basically everybody supports the revolution. It’s not like everybody is out fighting. Business is ongoing. There are shops open all over the place. We sit in a cafe and have ice cream. There are toys and chairs and bicycles for sale. And life goes on.

Locals tell us it’s not just about feeding, transporting, treating and housing the rebels. It’s also about providing better governance than the Syrian state could offer.

An elderly sheik now serves on a rebel-appointed council of judges that hears cases brought by the people.

Before the revolution, he was a preacher in a mosque. Now, he says he applies strict Islamic law to the cases brought before him. He recently sentenced a man to 100 lashes for having sex out of wedlock.

What If The Regime Regains Control?

My translator — who recently lived in Syria’s mostly secular capital, Damascus — later groans at the thought of being punished for whom he sleeps with. He says he can’t help but wonder if the new, shadow government will be any better than the previous one.

And there’s the real concern that the shadow government might not last, that the Syrian regime will somehow regain control in these areas and punish people for providing so much support and cover for the rebels.

Back in Qurqanya, we watch as regime helicopters circle closer toward the village, firing rockets in the hills just beyond. It’s the closest the regime’s forces have ever gotten to Qurqanya.

Later that night, I see the first signs of worry on the face of the woman of the house where we’re staying. She won’t let me record her, but she keeps asking me what I think will happen.

Will the regime come for us tomorrow? she asks. No, I tell her. I don’t think so.

What about after that? she asks. I tell her I just don’t know.

CIA’s favorite Saudi prince is laying the groundwork for a post-Assad Syria

[This article had to be pulled from cache.  Haaretz pulled it.

As the wars of succession in Syria begin, Saudi Arabia, led by it new intelligence chief, will do all it can to dissipate the Iranian influence on Damascus.

By Zvi Bar’el

Saudi Arabia Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Sept. 19, 2003. Photo by AP

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar bin Sultan, 62, fell in love with the United States when he was still a pilot in his country’s air force and took aerobatics training on an American air base. The romance was renewed several years later when he was named his country’s ambassador to Washington, a tenure that lasted 22 years, during which he was a regular guest of both George Bushes and was the only ambassador who was guarded by the U.S. Secret Service.

Last week King Abdullah named him director-general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, replacing Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, on top of his post as secretary general of the National Security Council, which he’s held since 2005.

Bandar’s appointment to the most important position in the Saudi security echelons is no coincidence. Aside from the fact that he is very well connected to the kingdom’s leaders (his wife, Haifa, is the daughter of King Faisal who was assassinated in 1975, her brother, Turki al-Faisal, was once head of Saudi intelligence and another brother, Mohammed al-Faisal, is one of the kingdom’s richest men), it seems that the primary reason for his appointment now is that Saudi Arabia is preparing for the next stage in Syria, after President Bashar Assad finally gets off the political stage, one way or another, and Syria turns into a focus of international struggles for control of the inheritance.

There is already an intense campaign over this inheritance between the United States with the European Union and Russia, but the ramifications of Assad’s fall on the positions of Iran and Hezbollah – and no less so, Iraq – are more important. And when Egypt is hobbling on crutches in its effort to establish its “Second Republic,” and its position in the Middle East is that of a disabled person needing nursing care, and when the Arab League is paralyzed, Saudi Arabia is left to assume responsibility for drawing up the new map of the Middle East.

From Washington’s perspective, Bandar’s appointment is important news. Bandar, the rugby fan and man-about-town, whose wife, more than a decade ago, was being investigated by Congress about her connections to Al-Qaida activists, is considered the CIA’s man in Riyadh. He’s known as a can-do person who makes quick decisions and doesn’t spare any resources to achieve his objectives.

When there was a need to transfer money to the rebels in Nicaragua in the 1980s, Bandar was the one who dealt with the Saudi “grants” that were requested by the White House. He was also the one who arranged things when Saudi Arabia was asked to help fund the mujahedeen’s battles in Afghanistan against the Soviet conquest.

Bandar is a member of that part of the royal family that is against the revolutions in the Arab states, and who see the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood no less of a threat than Iranian influence in the region.

He helped King Abdullah (when the latter was still crown prince) to formulate the Saudi peace plan that later became known as the Arab Peace Initiative to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and he fashioned the tough Saudi stance against Syria and Hezbollah after the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005. A few years afterward, he suggested that the king change course and reconcile with Syria in an effort to cool the relations between Syria and Iran.

When the revolutions broke out, even more so when the Shi’ite rebellion began in Bahrain, Bandar supported sending troops to that small kingdom to quell the revolt, which Saudi Arabia perceived as Iranian intervention in the business of the Gulf states. At the same time, Saudi Arabia decided to quickly support the new Egyptian regime financially, depositing more than $3 billion as a guarantee in the Egyptian central bank.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi knows very well that this aid does not stem from Saudi Arabia’s great love for the Egyptian revolution, let alone for the Muslim Brotherhood, but is meant to block Iranian efforts to gain a foothold in Egypt. As a result, when Morsi was invited to Tehran for a conference of non-aligned nations, he decided to stop first in Riyadh for a visit, so as not to give Iran the political satisfaction of being the first host of the new Egyptian president.

Saudi commentators say that Bandar was the one behind the decision to give money to the Syrian rebels, and even to buy weapons for them, and that the tough Saudi demand that Assad must step down is part of Bandar’s own strategic concept, which guides the kingdom far more than the positions of the 88-year-old king, whose health is failing.

The Saudi policy on Syria is being closely coordinated with the U.S. administration, both of which (like Israel) want to separate Iran from its most important Arab base and undermine the flow of weapons to Hezbollah. These goals have not escaped Iranian eyes, which is why Tehran is strengthening its positions in Iraq and in the Kurdish zone of northern Iraq. Moreover, according to reports from the Syrian opposition, Iran is also making clandestine contacts in Europe with rebel representatives.

There is no way to know what Syria will look like after Assad, and in which of the rebelling factions it pays to invest. Saudi Arabia, as is its wont, is investing in all of them. It is hoped that the United States will get the payoff.

Saudi King announces $100 million to Pakistan

IRNA – Saudi Arabia will extend $100m grants to Pakistan, the Prime Minister’s office has said.

Saudi Finance Minister Dr Ibrahim Al-Assaf also called Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and told him that the Saudi Finance Ministry was going to send $100 million immediately on the directives of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz for the welfare of the people of Pakistan.

The Prime Minister expressed his deep sense of gratitude on this kind gesture of His Majesty King Abdullah.

Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Tabouk, telephoned Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and said that the Prime Minister’s recent meeting with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz was extremely cordial and useful.

He said that the King considered Pakistan as his second home. He told the Prime Minister that he (Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz) would visit Pakistan by the end of this year.

The Prince asked the Prime Minister to convey his best regards to the President of Pakistan.

Talking to Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Prime Minister said that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoyed excellent relations which were rooted in common faith, traditions and values. He said that Pakistan held the Royal Family in the highest esteem.

The Prime Minister said that his recent visit to Saudi Arabia was a great success. He said that he exchanged views on a variety of subjects with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal and was deeply impressed by the vision and insight of His Majesty King Abdullah.