Russian analyst plays down armed action in Tajikistan
MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - A Russian analyst has played down the scale and potential effects of a current operation in Tajikistan in which security forces are hunting a group of militants blamed for Saturday's assassination of a senior security official.
The operation in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region in the Pamir mountains will hardly spark a "real conflict" and is likely to be over within days, Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Commonwealth of Independent States Institute, told Interfax on Tuesday.
The assassination victim was Maj. Gen. Abdullo Nazarov, head of the Gorno-Badakhshan department of the State National Security Committee.
"Above all, there's a powerful emotional factor there. All this happened after the assassination of one of the leaders of the Tajik special service. And that explains such a strong reaction. But at the end of the day, it'll be over soon. I don't think that it will lead to a real conflict," Zharikhin said.
"I expect al this to be over within days," he said.
A source in Dushanbe told Interfax on Tuesday that nine soldiers had been killed and 25 wounded during the operation.
About 60 opposition militants and about 40 members of security forces were killed in security operations that were conducted from summer 2010 to the first few months of 2011 and targeted civil war-era field commanders.
