A shootout between soldiers and militants broke out in Alma-Ate – SME.sk

NURSULTAN. Russia has sent its paratroopers to Kazakhstan as part of a peacekeeping force of a military alliance of former Soviet republics to help calm the situation in the troubled Central Asian country.

Military transport planes are transporting Russian airborne troops to the country, and the first units have already begun to carry out their assigned tasks, the Russian news agency TASS said, referring to the Secretariat of the Collective Security Council (ODKB).

According to the secretariat, the main task is to protect important state and military facilities and assist the Kazakh forces in establishing order.

Police are talking about dozens of destroyed attackers

An intense shootout between soldiers and armed persons broke out in the square in front of the mayor’s office in the Kazakh city of Almaty on Thursday.

“The soldiers arrived in the square and began to liquidate the rioters. There is an intense shooting,” said a TASS reporter.

Police spokeswoman Saltanat Azirbek said dozens of attackers had been killed. However, she did not specify what the term “destroy” means.

“At night, the extremists tried to break into the official buildings, the Almaty police department, as well as the buildings of the district police departments. Dozens of attackers have been destroyed and are being identified,” Azirbeková told Chabar-24 on Kazakh television.

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People were urged not to leave the house

Almaty’s military headquarters announced on Thursday night that security forces in the city had launched a counterterrorism operation. Kazakh President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev said on Wednesday that “terrorists” were at the forefront of the riots.

Azirbeková thus pointed out on Thursday that she was anti-terrorist action it is still taking place in the part of Almaty where the official buildings are located, and has called on residents and visitors alike to avoid danger and stay at home.

The Kazakh government’s website, including the president’s website, was down on Thursday night.

Many government websites did not work during Wednesday, but were available again in the evening. Later there was an outage. The websites of ministries, city offices, airports and police departments are also out of operation. Almaty currently has no internet connection.

Peacekeeping forces are heading for the country

TASS recalled that protests against high fuel prices broke out in the Mangystaus region on 2 January. Two days later, the riots spread to Almaty and other cities.

Authorities reported several dead and hundreds wounded by security forces and hundreds more wounded by civilians.

Kazakh President Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev said on Wednesday that “terrorists” were at the forefront of the riots. According to him, they took several planes at the airport in the city of Almaty. Tokayev asked for help from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (ODKB), which decided to send its peacekeeping force to Kazakhstan.

“In view of the speech by the President of Kazakhstan, Kashym-Zhomart Tokajev, and the threat to national security and sovereignty of the Republic of Kazakhstan, caused in particular by external intervention, the Collective Security Council decided to deploy ODKB collective peacekeeping forces to the Republic of Kazakhstan period in order to stabilize and normalize the situation in the country, “Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pasinjan said on Thursday.

Riots over high gas prices

According to the Kazakh Interior Ministry, eight members of the local security forces died during the mass protests, which escalated into riots, while another 317 members were injured, writes the Russian radio station Echo of Moscow. Almaty police also reported more than 500 civilians were injured on Wednesday.

Due to the ongoing unrest in the country on Wednesday declared a state of emergency, which applies throughout Kazakhstan. During its duration, the curfew is valid from 23:00 in the evening until 07:00 in the morning and any public events are prohibited.

Protests against high fuel prices – specifically liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – have been going on in Kazakhstan since the beginning of this year. According to the demonstrators, the increase in LPG prices is unfair due to the fact that Kazakhstan is an exporter of gas and oil and has rich energy reserves, AFP approaches. The government argued that the abolition of the price cap was that the low price of LPG was unsustainable.