Tajikistan - Page 2

The Taliban in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan are increasingly capturing weapons and other military equipment, including armored vehicles, from U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and using them against the troops.

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — Central Asia’s autocratic leaders don’t want to be liked. They want to be adored.

Russia and its ex-Soviet ally Tajikistan have conducted “large-scale military drills” near the Central Asian country’s border with Afghanistan, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP), citing a Tajik military official.

Contents: Tajikistan splits with Iran over invitation to alleged terrorist; Tajikistan considers turning from Iran to Saudi Arabia

Jihadists linked to the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) have joined the ranks of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a source at Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security (SCNS) told the Russian state-owned TASS news agency.

Contents: US Navy to challenge China in the South China Sea today; What was the purpose of Russia’s Caspian Sea cruise missile attack on Syria?; Insurers taking increasingly risky investment bets

Contents: Russian troops may take control of Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan; European Union agrees to terms in exchange for Turkey’s help with refugees; Hungary closes the border with Croatia; Polls show British voters more willing to leave European Union; Turkey’s president Erdogan ridicules Europe over refugee crisis

Contents: Taliban scores major strategic victory in Afghanistan, capturing Kunduz; The Afghan Taliban return to Kunduz after fourteen years; Repercussions for Central Asia

Contents: Russia’s Vladimir Putin tightens grip on Tajikistan at CSTO meeting; The troubled history of the CSTO in Central Asia; Russia’s economic slowdown means financial disaster for Central Asia

Russia may redeploy military troops to Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan in response to the deteriorating security situation afflicting the Afghan people less than a year since President Obama declared an end to the U.S. combat mission.

A man in Tajikistan has been fined the equivalent of four months’ wages after breaking the country’s law against holding birthday parties in public. Amirbek Isayev was fined 4,000 somonis (£400/$600) for celebrating his 25th birthday at a bar with

Contents: Violence flares in Central Asia’s Fergana Valley; Brief generational history of Uzbekistan; Rise of ISIS raises militant Islamist concerns in Central Asia

Colonel Gulmurod Khalimov, trained by both Russian and American special forces to head up the elite OMON police force of Tajikistan, has defected to the Islamic State.

Tajikistan’s curious anti-Islam campaign has already seen the government cracking down on beards and hijabs, the traditional female garment in Muslim culture. They have also asked imams to include praise for the secular government in their sermons and applied travel restrictions to Muslim citizens seeking to make the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The beard ban has reportedly been taken as far as the forcible shaving of illegally luxurious facial hair by security forces.

ISIS captures Yarmouk refugee camp, closes in on Damascus; Hezbollah trapped by a sense of collapse in al-Assad’s army; Turkmenistan fears jihadist invasion from Afghanistan; Palestinian Authority joins International Criminal Court