Six gunmen killed on Tajik-Afghan border

There are reports that six gunmen trying to cross from Afghanistan into Tajikistan were killed in a clash with Russian border guards.

A border guards spokesman said the gunmen had opened fire first, and that they were all killed in the ensuing exchange on Friday.

The spokesman said another Russian patrol had been attacked later the same day, and two soldiers had been injured. Russia has over twenty thousand border troops on the frontier between Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service