Clashes between the Taliban militia and Opposition forces have spread to within two or three km of the border with Tajikistan, Russian border guards patrolling the zone told AFP on Tuesday. Fighting is currently taking place about two or three kilometres in the southern sector of the border, Border Guard Spokesman Colonel Alexander Kondratiyev said.
“We can clearly hear the artillery and tank fire,” He said, Russian border guards have so far recorded no attempt by either side to cross the Tajik border, he added. The situation deteriorated at the weekend and the army is ready to help the border guards, A spokesman for the defence ministry in Moscow said without elaboration.
Russia has 8,000 men from the 201st army division and 11,000 border guards manning the 1,500-kilometre Tajik frontier with Afghanistan under a military accord between Moscow and Dushanbe.
The fundamentalist Taliban militia, which currently controls the bulk of Afghanistan, said Friday that it had taken control of the Dash I-I-Archi district on the banks of the Amu Daria River, which forms the border with Tajikistan.
Separately, Tajikistan said that it was ready to take in up to 20,000 Afghan refugees, deputy Emergencies Minister Abdurakhman Radzhibov said.

Bureau Report