• Militants crossed from Afghanistan, resisted orders.
• Weapons, explosives, recovered from attackers.
• Two Tajik border personnel also killed in operation.
  

Tajik security forces killed three armed militants who crossed into the country from Afghanistan and refused to lay down their weapons.

In a statement, Tajikistan’s Press Centre of the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security said that the incident took place on December 23.

“They intended to carry out an armed attack on one of the border outposts of the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security of the Republic of Tajikistan,” it added.

Tajik security forces swiftly identified the militants’ location and ordered them to surrender. However, they offered armed resistance, leading the forces to kill all three militants in a combat operation, read the statement.

Tajik forces also recovered firearms, including an M-16 rifle, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and three foreign-made pistols equipped with suppressors, ten hand grenades, one night-vision device, explosives, and other military equipment, from the killed militants.

During the fire exchange, two Border Troops personnel were also killed.

The Press Centre of the Border Troops noted that it was the third incident involving an armed attack following illegal border-crossing from Afghanistan into Tajikistan over the past month.

The Central Asian country assailed the Afghan Taliban regime’s failure to prevent terrorist outfits from using its soil for launching terrorist attacks into its neighbouring countries.

The incident comes weeks after five Chinese nationals were killed and five more injured in attacks launched from Afghanistan.

Tajik authorities and China’s embassy in the country said that the Chinese citizens were targeted in armed and drone attacks.

Following the deadly attacks, China’s embassy in Dushanbe, the capital, advised Chinese companies and personnel to urgently evacuate the border area.

Pakistan has repeatedly invited global attention to increased terrorist safe havens in Afghanistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Islamabad has lost nearly 1,200 lives this year alone in terrorism linked to networks based in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said earlier this month.

Pak-Afghan tensions

The issue of cross-border terrorism escalated after the Afghan Taliban and militants launched unprovoked attacks against Pakistan’s border posts on the night between October 11 and 12.

The clashes led to the killing of over 200 Taliban and affiliated militants, while 23 Pakistani soldiers laid down their lives defending the motherland.

Pakistan also conducted “precision strikes” deep inside Afghanistan, targeting terrorist safe havens in Kandahar province and Kabul.

A temporary 48-hour ceasefire was announced on October 15 at Afghanistan’s request, with the two sides eventually reaching an official ceasefire agreement on October 19 in Qatar in talks mediated by Doha and Turkiye.

Under the deal, terrorism from Afghanistan on Pakistani soil should have stopped immediately, with Islamabad and Kabul agreeing to establish mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries.

However, the following talks in Turkiye collapsed after Islamabad refused to accept the Afghan Taliban delegation’s “illogical” arguments and refusal to address Islamabad’s concerns regarding cross-border terrorism.

However, mediators persuaded Pakistan to give the talks another chance, which ultimately resulted in an agreement to uphold the ceasefire.

A helicopter crashed on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, killing five people, the civil aviation authority said on Thursday, while local media reported that the aircraft was on a medical rescue mission.

The helicopter crashed near the mountain’s Barafu Camp on Wednesday, Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

Mwananchi newspaper and East Africa TV, citing Kilimanjaro region’s head of police, Simon Maigwa, reported that the helicopter was on a medical rescue mission.

Among the dead were a guide, a doctor, the pilot and two foreign tourists, Mwananchi cited Maigwa as saying, without giving the tourists’ nationalities.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, is nearly 6,000 meters (20,000 ft) above sea level.

The crash happened between 4670 and 4700 metres, Mwananchi reported.

Around 50,000 tourists climb Kilimanjaro annually.

Christmas was observed across the world on Thursday as people around the world in prayers and traditional festivities with religious devotion and celebrations.

With churches lit up and decorated with Christmas trees, worshippers took part in services

Pope Leo XIV held the first Christmas mass of his pontificate, greeting thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square before the service.

During the mass, Leo said Christmas was a feast of “faith, charity and hope” and criticised a “distorted economy” that “leads us to treat human beings as mere merchandise”.

Before, he spoke in front of St Peter’s basilica to offer Christmas wishes and thank those who had come to follow the mass on outdoor screens despite rainy weather.

“St Peter’s is very large but unfortunately it is not large enough to receive all of you,” he told the crowd of around 5,000 people.

The US pope has adopted a more discreet and moderate style to that of his charismatic predecessor Francis, who died on April 21.

The mass was attended by high-ranking Church figures, diplomats and around 6,000 faithful.

Leo stuck to a very religious homily without any direct reference to current affairs.

The ceremony celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ and is one of the most important days in the Catholic Church calendar.

The service combines traditional music with symbolic gestures such as placing a statue of the baby Jesus in a cradle.