Tajikistan’s National Guards on Thursday denied multiple media reports that 28 people were killed in a helicopter crash in a volatile area where government forces are battling Islamist rebels, insisting that the death toll was seven.
Spokeswoman Hainirisso Komilova dismissed reports that cited unidentified security sources as saying the victims included 21 soldiers of an elite anti-terror unit.
Komilova said four people died instantly when the Mi-8 helicopter went down Wednesday near the town of Garm, apparently because of technical problems, and three died later as a result of their injuries.
(AP)
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