Turkmenistan's government said Sunday it had neutralized a gang of drug traffickers after a prolonged shootout in the capital of the Central Asian nation.
Independent media reported gunbattles Friday and Saturday in the streets of Ashgabat, between a radical Islamic group and security forces. Independent Web site Hronika Turkmenistana said nine security officers were killed. Earlier reports had said at least 20 officers were killed. The claims could not be confirmed because information is strictly controlled in the authoritarian former Soviet state. The government said in a statement that it “neutralized” the gang, but did not say whether there were any casualties or arrests.
Police besieged the militants in a four-story building of an abandoned factory, witnesses told The Associated Press on Sunday. Security forces used grenade throwers and armored personnel carriers and suffered casualties, the witnesses said.
The streets around the factory remained cordoned Sunday. A police officer told the AP that two militants, aged 35 and 28, were detained after the clash. The officer could not provide his name because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
Turkmenistan borders Afghanistan and Iran and is a route for the global heroin trade. The clash was likely caused by a conflict between organized criminal groups and the police that protect them, said Arkady Dubnov, a Central Asia analyst in Russia. He said an armed incursion by Islamists was “very unlikely” in Turkmenistan, where authorities have a tight hold on power. Islamic groups have been active elsewhere in Central Asia since the 1991 Soviet collapse.
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