Kyrgyzstan has wrapped up a military campaign to crush Islamic extremists who staged an armed incursion in the south of this Central Asian state in August, a senior security official said Monday.
"The second military campaign to destroy rebels who invaded in August into the south of Kyrgyzstan has been completed successfully," said National Security Secretary Bolot Dzhanuzakov on Monday.
Mountain passes were now covered with deep snow and impassable, and the frontier region was completely under the control of Kyrgyz border troops, Dzhanuzakov said.
The announcement came ahead of weekend presidential elections in which President Askar Akayev is widely expected to secure another five-year term in office.
A military parade is to be held in the capital Bishkek on Thursday and a monument will be unveiled to victims of the Batken fighting, Dzhanuzakov said.
Dzhanuzakov said the rebels had halted their assaults October 8, although he admitted the danger of attacks still existed.
"The threat remains that the Batken events will be repeated as the main source of tension in Central Asia is the continuing civil war in Afghanistan," he said.
"Until lasting peace is restored there, the danger exists of an armed conflict spreading to Central Asia," he added.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan launched an incursion into the southern Batken region in August, for the second year running, apparently in a bid to set up an Islamic state in the region's Ferghana Valley.
The insurgents, allegedly trained in Afghanistan, were said to have crossed from Tajikistan after snows melted and high mountain routes became passable.
The Tajik authorities have denied that the rebels came from Tajikistan.
According to Dzhanuzakov, 30 Kyrgyz troops died, 23 were injured and one was considered missing after this summer's campaign to drive out the rebels.
He said some 120 rebels had been killed in the fighting and that more than 200 had been wounded -- BISHKEK (AFP)
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