RUSSIAN BORDERGUARDS KEEP FIGHTING WITH AFGHANI MILITANTS








DUSHANBE, March 7, 2001. /RIA Novosti correspondent/--Since early this year Russian borderguards in Tajikistan were engaged in 10 fire fights with armed trespassers of the Tajik-Afghani state border. Head of the press service of the borderguard group of the Russian Federal Borderguard Service in Tajikistan Alexander Kondratyev has reported that fire was unleashed on borderguards 5 times from the Afghani territory.


	According to Kondratyev, since the beginning of 2001 Russian borderguards stationed on the Tajik-Afghani border detained some 20 trespassers of the state border and thwarted over 10 attempts to penetrate in Tajikistan from Afghanistan. Over 225 kilograms of heroin were confiscated from drug-traffickers and more than 10 rounds of rifles, 4 reactive projectiles and 7 cartridges for a grenade-launcher seized.