TERRORIST STRIKE IN UZBEKISTAN POINTS AGAIN TO NAMANGANI

Since August 7, the Military Forces of
Uzbekistan have been carrying out an operation to annihilate terrorist units acting within
the Uzbek-Tajik border region, in the Sarassiya and Surkhan-Daria provinces of Uzbekistan.
For the time being some 100 fighters, allegedly belonging to the field commander Juma
Namangani, are trapped by Uzbek military units within the two settlements of Zevar and
Kshtud, some 20 km from Tajikistan territory.

The Tajik media announced that there have been casualties among the Uzbek army
forces.Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov stated at a briefing in Tashkent that
the Tajikistan government military detachments are acting in full cooperation with the
Uzbekistan army. The official also stated that the terrorists penetrated into Uzbekistan
from or through Tajikistan territory. The Tajik frontier commanders deny this, referring
to the fact that lately the border has been significantly reinforced by both Tajikistan
and Uzbekistan.

Takhir Yuldashev, the ideological leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU),
in his interview with the Persian Service of the BBC stated that, "The IMU fighters,
those currently involved in the militant actions in Surkhan-Daria province, have always
been located on Uzbek territory." On August 12, the Kyrgyz border guards repulsed an
attack by some 50 IMU extremist fighters in a clash that broke out at a southern
Uzbek-Kyrgyz frontier outpost. In the course of the fighting, which lasted for several
hours, many of the terrorists were killed. Kyrgyz border guards also suffered casualties.
Four were killed, ten wounded, and two were captured by the fighters.

According to Russian Public Television (ORT), the fighting units definitely belong to
the field commander Juma Namangani and are guided by professional instructors who are
Islamic extremists mainly Afghans and Pakistanis. ORT further maintains that the Russian
intelligence service possesses information about a conspiracy involving international
Islamic extremist organizations that are targeting Europe and Russia. Having stretched the
"Islamic line" from Kosovo down to the Philippines, the extremists in this
alleged conspiracy intend to separate Central Asia from the rest of the world. ORT also
reports that Osama bin Laden has allocated US$ 20 million for the actions leading to
destabilization in the former Soviet Central Asian Republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan.

Konstantin Parshin, Radio NIC, Tajikistan