Warlords who were formerly loyal to the Tajik government have attacked the Tajik cities of Tursun Zade, west of Dushanbe, and Kurgan-Tyube, in the south, Russian and Western media reported. Former Tursun Zade Mayor Ibod Boimatov, supported by 300 cadres, two tanks, and two armored personnel carriers, entered Tajikistan from neighboring Uzbekistan and captured the aluminum factory in the city on 26 January. There are unconfirmed reports that he also took some Tajik soldiers hostage. In the south, the commander of the first brigade, Mahmud Khudaberdiyev, took control of the police station and government buildings in Kurgan-Tyube on 27 January. In September, the first brigade and a rival unit of the Tajik army, the eleventh brigade, fought several battles.
Negotiations are under way, but both men are demanding that the government step down.
Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov arrived in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on 28 January, to reassure Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov of Moscow's commitment to the Central Asian republic, Russian and Western sources reported. Primakov's visit comes less than a week after the murder of the country's leading Muslim cleric. Primakov and Rakhmonov discussed the inter- Tajik peace talks scheduled to resume this week in Ashgabat, and Primakov reportedly urged the president to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, already in its fourth year. The Russian delegation departed the same night for Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where Primakov met with Uzbek President Islam Karimov to discuss regional security and Russo-Uzbek relations. Nikolai Gunkin, the head of the Semirechie Cossack organization, was released from prison on 27 January after completing a three-month sentence in Almaty, Russian media reported on 28 January.