Tajikistan: Several Killed In ISIS Attack

Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon was on a visit to Switzerland when the attack happened. AFP
Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon was on a visit to Switzerland when the attack happened. AFP
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Tajikistan: Several Killed In ISIS Attack

Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon was on a visit to Switzerland when the attack happened. AFP
Tajikistan's President Emomali Rakhmon was on a visit to Switzerland when the attack happened. AFP

Seventeen people were killed in Tajikistan on Wednesday in an attack on a border post that officials blamed on ISIS group militants who had crossed over from Afghanistan.

Tajik security forces killed 15 when an armed and masked gang attacked the checkpoint on the border with Uzbekistan.

A soldier and a policeman also died in the fighting, officials said, AFP reported.

The clashes near the Tajik capital Dushanbe broke out as the country prepared to celebrate Constitution Day on Wednesday and the country's long-serving President Emomali Rakhmon was on a visit to Switzerland.

Rakhmon is also expected to visit Paris later this week to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron as part of a rare European visit.

After questioning several detained militants, the Tajik border guard service said the men were members of the ISIS group who had crossed the border from Afghanistan on Sunday.

"All (of them) are members of the so-called terrorist group 'ISIS'", the border guard service said in a statement.

The interior ministry released pictures of several bodies in black clothes lying next to burnt-out vehicles at the scene of the clash.

The militants crossed the border in the south of Tajikistan and apparently trekked to the site of the attack on the border with Uzbekistan, which is around 200 kilometres away.

The armed gang of around 20 masked people attacked the Ishkobod border post located some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of the Tajikistan capital after 3 am local time Wednesday, the interior ministry said.

"As a result of an operation conducted by law enforcement forces, 15 members of an armed criminal group were neutralized and four more attackers detained," stated.

The country's border guards said separately that five attackers had been detained.

According to AFP, tens of thousands of people were killed in Tajikistan during a five-year civil war in the 1990s.



Russia Removes Afghan Taliban from List of Banned Terrorist Groups

 Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
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Russia Removes Afghan Taliban from List of Banned Terrorist Groups

 Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Russia's Supreme Court judge Oleg Nefyodov delivers a verdict lifting a ban on Afghanistan's Taliban, who were designated as a terrorist group more than two decades ago, in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)

Russia on Thursday suspended its ban on the Taliban, which it had designated for more than two decades as a terrorist organization, in a move that paves the way for Moscow to normalize ties with the leadership of Afghanistan.

No country currently recognizes the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war. But Russia has been gradually building relations with the movement, which President Vladimir Putin said last year was now an ally in fighting terrorism.

The Taliban was outlawed by Russia as a terrorist movement in 2003. State media said the Supreme Court on Thursday lifted the ban with immediate effect.

Russia sees a need to work with the Taliban as it faces a major security threat from extremist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.

"Russia aims to build mutually beneficial ties with Afghanistan in all areas, including the fight against drugs and terrorism," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It added that Moscow was grateful to Afghanistan for military operations against the local branch of ISIS.

Moscow also aims to strengthen trade, business and investment ties with Kabul, leveraging Afghanistan's strategic position for future energy and infrastructure projects, the ministry statement said.

In March 2024, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by ISIS. US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, ISIS Khorasan (ISIS-K), that was responsible.

The Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of ISIS in Afghanistan.

Western diplomats say the Taliban's path towards wider international recognition is blocked until it changes course on women's rights. The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian.