BISHKEK Around 50 Islamic rebels crossed into the former Soviet Central Asian Republic of Kyrgyzstan from neighboring Tajikistan early on Wednesday and fought government troops, a Kyrgyz official said.
Kyrgyz troops pushed the rebels back towards the border but fighting was still raging in the region at 1030 GMT, a Kyrgyz Defense Ministry spokesman told Reuters.
The new incursion came just hours after the Kyrgyz Army said it had repelled a group of armed rebels to the Tajik border and re-established control over its territory.
Dozens of rebels and government troops from Kyrgyzstan and neighboring Uzbekistan have died in fighting since suspected members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan launched attacks from their bases in Tajikistan last week.
The insurgents oppose Uzbek President Islam Karimov, who has clamped down on what he sees as a threat to his country's security from Islamic extremism.
Tajikistan borders Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to the north, and Afghanistan to the south. Rebels seeking to destabilize Uzbekistan have tried to enter through Kyrgyzstan in the past.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmonov, discussed the violence on Wednesday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, where both are on holiday, Rakhmonov's spokesman told Reuters in Dushanbe.
(Reuter)