RUSSIAN AIR RAIDS SAID TO RESUME IN TAJIKISTAN.

Tajik United Opposition (UTO) deputy chairman Akbar Turajonzoda charged May 19, and Russia’s Air Force denied yesterday, that Russian aircraft last week had rocketed and strafed opposition-controlled villages in Tajikistan’s Tavildara district and on the Tajik-Afghan border. "The Russian Air Force does not interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign Tajikistan," the official statement said. Russian tactical aviation frequently attacked opposition-controlled villages last autumn and was expected to resume operations following the lull imposed by winter weather in the Tajik highlands. In Tajikistan’s east-west corridor, the resistance yesterday captured a police station with its arsenal of weapons in the district center Jirgartal, killing two policemen and capturing four, and setting up its own patrols around the town. (Interfax, Itar-Tass, May 20)

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