Tajik Interior Ministry troops are still trying to locate and neutralize former field commanders Rakhmon Sanginov and Mansur Muakkalov and their remaining followers, who have split up into small groups following the death or capture of dozens of their number earlier this week. Some of those groups have reportedly retreated to the Ramit gorge northeast of Dushanbe. On 27 June, "Vremya novostei" quoted unidentified commentators in Dushanbe as saying that Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov would have preferred to try to negotiate with Sanginov, but ceded to pressure from other influential Tajik politicians, including Dushanbe mayor Mahmudsaid Ubaidullaev, who advocated the use of force. (RFE/RL)