10 dead as police, terrorists clash in Tajikistan

DUSHANBE - Four policemen and at least six Islamist militants were killed Monday in gun battles in Tajikistan amid a worsening security situation in the Central Asian republic, a defence ministry official said Monday.

Suspected terrorists had killed 26 soldiers just two weeks ago during an attack on a military convoy.

Observers have watched the escalating violence with concern, suggesting that a civil war could break out and that the position of authoritarian President Emomali Rahmon has been weakened.

Following the escape of two dozen radical Islamists from a prison in the capital Dushanbe in August, there has been a sharp rise in the number of terrorist attacks in the country.

The authorities suspect the escapees may be hiding in the mountainous region on the border with China.

The area was a stronghold for rebels during the bloody civil war that gripped the country in the 1990s. More than 10,000 people were killed in that fighting.