DUSHANBE -- Russian troops patrolling the frontier between Tajikistan and Afghanistan fought a gang of six armed men who crossed from Afghanistan on Thursday and forced them back over the border, a military spokesman said on Friday.
Russia has more than 10,000 troops in the former Soviet Central Asian state of Tajikistan, as the Tajik Army, weakened by a 1992-97 civil war, cannot protect the border unaided.
"Russian border guards were involved in fighting with an armed group of six people entering Tajikistan from Afghanistan.
The fighting took place at 9:15 p.m. (1615 GMT on Thursday)," a spokesman for the guards said.
"During the fighting the insurgents were forced to return toward Afghanistan. The area has been sealed off and a search is under way. No losses were suffered by the Russian troops," he said, adding that a foreign pistol had been found.
The border is a key crossing point for drugs grown in Afghanistan bound for Russia and Europe.
It is also thought to be an entry point for rebels who attacked government troops this summer in two ex-Soviet states, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, with dozens of losses on both sides.
Russia and former Soviet states close to Afghanistan have long feared a threat to regional stability from the possible spread of fundamental Islam and from drug smuggling, and have been consistently hostile toward the Taleban.
But the two largest and most populous states in the region, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, have started to adopt a more conciliatory tone and both have held talks with Taleban diplomats in Pakistan in recent weeks.
(Reuter)