A joint exercise for servicemen of Tajik armed forces and Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan is kicking off in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) on July 17, according to the Ministry of Defense (MoD)
An official source at a MoD says the exercise will involve some 10,000 servicemen of the Tajik Armed Forces, Russia military base, Tajik border guards and reservists as well as civilian support services and 100 armored vehicles and combat helicopters.
According to him, the exercise scenario is based on terrorist groups attempting to penetrate into Tajik territory from Afghanistan.
The purpose of the exercise is to rehearse mobilization of reservists as well as coordination and interaction in combat missions in mountains to annihilate terrorist groups that managed to penetrate into Tajik territory.
Tajik Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Sherali Mirzo, will be in overall command of the war game that will run through July 20, the source, noting that the final stage of the exercise will take place at the “Jelondi” training ground in Shugnan district.
It will be the first joint exercise for Tajik and Russian servicemen in the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region.
Recall, a joint four-day anti-terror drill for Tajik and Chinese servicemen took place in GBAO’s Ishkashim district on October 20-23, 2016. The exercise involved about 10,000 servicemen reinforced with armored carriers, artillery and aircraft.
The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region sits at the nexus of security problems including Uighur unrest in China’s Xinjiang region; Afghanistan’s war and opium trafficking; and jihadists’ potential return from Iraq and Syria to China, Central Asia or Russia.
