12 policemen, ‘dozens’ of protestors killed in Kazakhstan unrest
SMA NEWS – ALMATY
Security forces in Kazakhstan killed dozens of protesters trying to storm government buildings overnight, police said Thursday, after a Moscow-led military alliance agreed to send forces to help quell mounting unrest. The country’s state TV also confirmed the death of 12 policemen during clashes with the demonstrators, adding that one of the bodies was found with its head cut off. Long seen as one the most stable of the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, energy-rich Kazakhstan is facing its biggest crisis in decades after days of protests over rising fuel prices escalated into widespread unrest. In the worst reported violence so far, police said dozens of people were killed in battles with security forces at government buildings in the country’s largest city Almaty. “Last night, extremist forces tried to assault administrative buildings, the Almaty city police department, as well as local police commissariats. Dozens of assailants were eliminated,” police spokesman Saltanat Azirbek was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Kazakhstan, TASS and Ria Novosti news agencies. Videos on social media on Thursday showed pillaged shops and burned buildings in Almaty, automatic gunfire in the streets and residents screaming in fear. The growing unrest is presenting a major challenge to the authoritarian regime of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and has raised international concern.
