Free Republic

KORASUV, Uzbekistan May 18, 2005 — A Muslim rebel group claimed Wednesday it had seized control of a small Uzbek town on the border of Kyrgyzstan and vowed to build an Islamic state. Diplomats and U.N. officials toured a nearby city where government troops fired on demonstrators, reportedly killing hundreds. The leader of the rebel group, Bakhtiyor Rakhimov, said his forces controlled Korasuv, a town of 20,000, and were ready to fight any government troops that came to crush his rebellion. An AP reporter in Korasuv saw no sign of government officials in the town. "The town is in the...

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...