DUSHANBE, June 22 (AVN) - An artillery cannonade was heard from the eastern outskirts of Dushanbe for about half an hour starting from 3.00 Moscow time on Friday (2300 GMT on Thursday). A reporter of the Military News Agency counted about 20 gun-shots.
According to eyewitnesses, several projectile launches, supposedly from the Grad system, were fired at the Teppai Samarkandi village, which is the eastern suburbs of the city.
"Tajik Interior Ministry bodies together with other law-enforcement agencies started elimination and deactivation of a terrorist group led by Rakhmon Sanginov and Mansur Muakkalov on the territory of the Rokhaty village council in the Leninsky district on Friday," the ministry's press centre reported early on Friday.
Sanginov is a field commander of the Unified Tajik Opposition who captured four officers of the Interior Ministry officers on June 11 to 17 and is still holding them hostages. Muakkalov was earlier an opposition member but after signing the peace agreement he started working in the Defence Ministry and was appointed unit commander. Later he was sacked due to disobedience to the defence minister's orders.
The cannonade is still heard in the city. Law-enforcers use aviation, tanks and APCs to suppress the extremists. There have been reports on casualties.