DUSHANBE, Tajikistan -- Rebels in the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan have killed 12 soldiers and captured dozens of others in the second major humiliation for the Tajik army in a week.


Military officials said Wednesday that a Tajik army unit had engaged in a major clash with rebels near the village of Khait, in a mountainous region about 200 kilometers east of the capital of Dushanbe, late Tuesday.


"The Tajik army lost 12 soldiers, and dozens have been captured around Tajikabad and Garm," said the military official, who declined to be identified. It was not known how many rebel casualties there were.


Last week the rebels and their Afghan mujahadeen allies captured 56 soldiers in Tavil Dara, another mountainous area about 130 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe. Officials have quoted two soldiers who escaped as saying between 10 and 15 of the 56 prisoners have been killed by their captors.


The Tajik rebels lost a civil war in late 1992 and fled to Afghanistan, where they have received weapons, training and money from Afghan groups sympathetic to their Islamic cause. Tajikistan's Russian-backed government, led by Emomali Rakhmonov, has been battling them and an estimated 20,000 lives were lost through last year.


Until July, guerrilla activity within Tajikistan had centered on sporadic assassinations of Russian and Tajik military personnel. Tactics appear to have changed, with larger rebel groups now infiltrating the country and fighting pitched battles.


Military action intensified on Monday when several Su-25 aircraft bombed rebel positions in the Tavil Dara region. Officials said the planes destroyed a tank and an armored personnel carrier.


The Afghan government says it does not actively support the Tajik rebels, but the rugged border region is beyond the control of the government, and Afghan Muslims are sympathetic to fellow Muslims from Tajikistan.


(AP, Reuters)