Commercial flights have resumed between the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, and the Uzbek city of Bukhara amid improving ties between the two Central Asian neighbors.

A plane from the Tajik private airline SomonAir arrived in Bukhara’s international airport on August 6, the first commercial flight between the two cities in more than 25 years.

Flights between Dushanbe and the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, resumed in April 2017 after a quarter-century break.

SomonAir launched regular flights to the Uzbek city of Samarkand last month.

Passenger flights between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were halted in 1992 when the Tajik civil war broke out.

Relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have been strained for years over disputes including transit routes, border security, and the sharing of water resources.

The ties began to improve after new Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev came to power in 2016, vowing to seek close ties with neighboring countries.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan launched a regular bus service between Tashkent and the northern Tajik city of Khujand in May.

Officials in both counties say more flights and bus services connecting Tajik and Uzbek cities will be announced in the near future. </s> Only a two-kilometer stretch of Tajikistan’s common border with Uzbekistan near the Farhod water reservoir still remains uncoordinated, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus on April 19.

“The stretch is located at the junction of the borders of Tajikistan’s Sughd province and Uzbekistan’s Syrdarya region. There no any facilities or settlements in that area,” the source said.

According to him, the issue of that stretch would be officially solved during a state visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to Uzbekistan, which is scheduled for early Autumn 2018.

Earlier, the Tajik-Uzbek border delimitation talks had been stalled since February 2009 after Tajikistan rejected Uzbekistan’s proposal to give up some disputed lands to the Tajik side on condition that Tashkent will gain full control of Farhod water reservoir along the two countries border.

The first border talks between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan after the three-year break took place in Dushanbe on Feb. 21-22, 2012. On April 24, 2015, officials of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan met in the northern Tajik city of Khujand to discuss issues around protecting common borders in 2014. In November 2016, a working group began considering solutions to definitively outline the 16 percent of the 1,332-kilometer border still under discussion.

During the visit of Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov to Dushanbe that took place on Jan. 10, 2018, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan agreed to implement visa-free regime and other border-related measures. The regulations also provide for the building of new checkpoints along the border and the opening of several bus links to connect the two nations' towns and cities. </s> Dushanbe (Tajikistan) (AFP) - Russia and Tajikistan on Tuesday began joint military exercises near the Tajik-Afghan border to prepare to ward off potential Taliban attacks.

More than 10,000 troops, mostly Tajik reservists, will take part in the first such drills in the area by the ex-Soviet allies, Tajikistan's defence ministry said.

Combined forces will practice "eliminating terrorists who broke through" from Afghanistan in an imagined incursion, it said.

Some 400 soldiers and 80 pieces of Russian military equipment were deployed from a military base in Tajikistan for exercises due to last until Friday, the Russian army said.

The drills will take place just over the border from the Afghan province of Badakhshan.

Russia and Tajikistan have intensified military cooperation since US-led forces began withdrawing from Afghanistan in large numbers in 2014.

This is the first time they have held exercises in the sometimes restive Tajik province of Gorno-Badakhshan, where clashes between government and rebel forces took place in 2012.

Previous exercises were held in the country's southern Khatlon province.

China has beefed up its security assistance in the country in recent times, notably building infrastructure on the 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan and holding its own drills with Tajikistan in 2016.

The border is a haven for drug traffickers and was guarded by Russian troops before they stepped back in 2005. Afghanistan is the world's biggest opium producer. </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - A Boeing 707 military cargo plane crashed in bad weather on Monday west of the Iranian capital, killing 15 out of the 16 people on board, the Iranian army said.

A flight engineer survived and was taken to hospital, the army said in a statement carried by the semi-official Fars news agency.

The plane went down near Fath airport, near Karaj in the central Iranian province of Alborz.

“A Boeing cargo 707 place carrying meat from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan had an emergency landing at Fath airport today ... the flight engineer has been dispatched to the hospital,” the army said.

“It exited the runway during the landing and caught fire after hitting the wall at the end of the runway,” the army.

The army’s statement came after some confusion over who owned the plane. Earlier on Monday, a spokesman for Iran’s civil aviation told had told state TV that the plane belonged to Kyrgyzstan, while a spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport said the plane belonged to Iran’s Payam Air.

State TV said rescue teams had been sent to the area, between the airports of Fath and Payam. It showed footage of burning wreckage of the plane and a plume of smoke rising from the crash site. </s> Sixty-six people have been killed in a passenger plane crash in Iran, airline company officials say.

The Aseman Airlines plane, en route from Tehran to the south-western city of Yasuj, came down in the Zagros mountains of central Iran.

The Red Crescent has deployed a search and rescue team to the site near the city of Semirom in Isfahan province.

The plane left Tehran at 05:00 local time (01:30 GMT) and disappeared from radar later.

A local official said bad weather had hampered a helicopter search.

“All emergency forces are on alert,” a spokesman said.

The plane is believed to be a 20-year-old ATR 72-500.

Reports say those on board were 60 passengers, two security guards, two flight attendants and the pilot and co-pilot.

11 February: Russian Antonov An-148 crashes minutes after leaving Moscow’s Domodedovo airport with 71 people on board. The plane was en route to the city of Orsk in the Ural mountains when it crashed near the village of Argunovo, about 80km (50 miles) south-east of Moscow.

No passenger jet crashes – safest year on record for commercial airlines

25 December: Russian military Tu-154 jet airliner crashes in the Black Sea, with the loss of all 92 passengers and crew. </s> BISHKEK (REUTERS) - A Turkish Airlines cargo jet crashed near Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport on Monday (Jan 16), killing at least 16 people, the Kyrgyz government said.

Rescue workers have recovered the body of one pilot and 15 local people whose houses were in the Boeing 747 jet's crash area, the healthcare ministry said. </s> A cargo jet belonging to Turkish Airlines crashed near Kyrgyzstan's Manas airport on 16 January. According to the Kyrgyz government, 16 people were killed in the accident.

Rescue workers recovered the bodies of 15 locals who lived in the area of the crash. The other body was that of the Boeing 747 jet's pilot, the healthcare ministry said. The Emergencies Ministry informed that the crash took place in Bishkek's basic housing community

The incident led to a fire breaking out in the locality. "After the crash, two houses in the community caught fire. The fire-fighting effort is underway," the ministry said.

According to local news agency 24.kg, Manas airport was closed following the crash and access roads in the area were blocked. The jet was on a flight from Hong Kong to Istanbul and was expected to refuel in Manas. </s> DUBAI (Reuters) - A Boeing 707 cargo plane with at least nine people on board crashed in bad weather on Monday west of the Iranian capital, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that there was no immediate information on casualties.

It was not immediately clear who owned the plane. A spokesman for Iran’s civil aviation told state TV that the plane belonged to Kyrgyzstan. A spokeswoman for Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport said the plane, en route from Kyrgyzstan’s Manas airport, belonged to Iran’s Payam Air.

“We don’t have clear information about the details of the crash,” said the head of Iran’s emergency department, Pirhossein Kolivand. Another official told Fars that 10 people were on board and that they were all feared killed.

The plane went down near Fath airport, near Karaj in the central Iranian province of Alborz.

Fars said the plane crash-landed after “mistaking the airport with another airfield because of the bad weather”.

Iranian state television showed a plume of smoke rising from the crash site.

TV said rescue teams had been sent to the area, between the airports of Fath and Payam. </s> "[A total of] five people were killed by the avalanches that hit the Dushanbe-Khujand route and two more on the Khorog-Murghab roads," Umeda Yusupova said.

She added that following the avalanches, the country's authorities had evacuated up to 800 people and 200 cars from the affected areas.

The CoES calls on the residents of the country, as well as on the visitors of Tajikistan to refrain from traveling to the avalanche zones, because of the existing threat of a natural disaster, the spokeswoman said.

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Commercial flights have resumed between the Tajikistan capital, Dushanbe, and the Uzbekistan city of Bukhara amid improving ties.