Free Republic

Government troops reclaimed control of an eastern Uzbek town where rebels announced they would build a strict Islamic state, and local residents said Thursday that authorities had arrested the group's leaders. Some said that about 200 government forces had occupied Korasuv, a town of 20,000 on the border with Kyrgyzstan, overnight and arrested the rebel leader Bakhtiyor Rakhimov and several aides who had announced a plan to rule according to Islamic law. Other residents said the government troops numbered 1,000. Some local residents said they heard no shots, but others reported sporadic shooting. All refused to give their names,...

The leader of a group of rebels claiming to control this Uzbek border town said Wednesday that he and his supporters intend to build an Islamic state and are ready to fight if government troops attempt to crush their revolt. "We will be building an Islamic state here in accordance with the Quran," Bakhtiyor Rakhimov told The Associated Press while leaning down from the back of a horse. Tense but confident, the bearded 42-year-old farmer, wearing a traditional Uzbek embroidered black-and-white skull cup, snapped his fingers as he gave orders to an assistant. It was unclear how many people...