Government Commander’s Forces Seize Part of Tajik Capital From Rival

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — Forces of Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry commander, Sukhrob Kasimov, on Sunday seized a northern district of the capital from a rival warlord, witnesses said.

A Reuters correspondent saw jubilant fighters, wearing green bandannas and waving automatic rifles, tearing around the district in private cars and on the backs of army trucks. Fighting that had broken out the day before had stopped.

The Central Asian state has remained tense despite a June agreement between the government and an armed Islamic opposition ending a five-year civil war that killed tens of thousands of people.

Fighting broke out Saturday between Kasimov and forces loyal to senior tax official Yakub Salimov in a dispute over the killing of Kasimov’s uncle last week. But Western diplomats said that underlying the dispute was a battle for turf.

There was no word on casualties, but the International Committee of the Red Cross said Saturday that it had supplied a Dushanbe hospital with medicine to treat 40 injured people.