August 26, 1999
Web posted at: 4:29 a.m. EDT (0829 GMT)

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- Kyrgyz forces were preparing an operation against hundreds of intruders who have seized four villages and were holding at least seven hostages early Thursday, the country's foreign minister said.

But complications arose before the preparations were even completed.

About 20 soldiers from a Kyrgyz reconnaissance detachment were taken hostage Wednesday, security officials said. The detachment was spearheading the effort to evict the gunmen.

Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Muratbek Imanaliyev told reporters that his his country's soliders estimate there are two or three groups of gunmen, numbering from 400 to 1,000. Kyrgyz forces already have clashed with the intruders and claim they have killed at least 10 of them.

Imanaliyev's estimates suggested that growing numbers of fighters were streaming into the remote southern area of Batken, 400 km (250 miles) south of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek.

Five days into the kidnapping crisis, the identity and demands of the gunmen remain a mystery, though Kyrygz officials believe they are linked to radical Islamic groups in either Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. Their raid took place in a remote area in the Pamir Mountains between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, a region so difficult to reach that it's complicating efforts to oust the gunmen, Kyrgyz officials said.

Gunmen's demands unclear

Tajik offficials say the militants belong to a gang led by an ethnic Uzbek whose guerrillas have been active in the region for sevral years. It's unclear what the gunmen want; their only demands so far have been for food.

Their hostages include four Japanese geologists working on a development program in the impoverished former Soviet republic.

Imanaliyev declined to say when the army operation would take place but said Kyrgyz forces believed the four Japanese geologists were being held in the mountains between the village of Zardaly and the regional centre of Batken.

He said there had been sporadic shooting through the night in the hills where the gunmen were hiding.

Kyrgyz officials said on Wednesday the gunmen had blown up two schools and a bridge and had hoisted a green Islamic flag over two of the villages they are holding.

Imanaliyev could not confirm reports that Uzbekistan had sent troops to help Kyrgyzstan but he said the two states were "cooperating closely" in efforts to destroy the intruders.

A senior security official told Reuters nine Kyrgyz soldiers were missing near the area where the gunmen were based and said it was possible they too had been abducted.

"Kyrgyzstan is doing all it can to free all the hostages alive and unhurt," said Bolot Dzhanuzakov, head of the former Soviet republic's defence and security department.

Asked how many gunmen he thought had entered Kyrgyzstan, he said: "It is difficult to say. They are crossing the border all the time.

The kidnappings have embarrassed President Askar Akayev, who this week hosted Russia's President Boris Yeltsin, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the leaders of neighbouring Kazakhstan and Tajikistan for a regional summit.

Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Keizo Takami was due to discuss the hostage crisis with Akayev in Bishkek on Thursday.

"We are very concerned for the lives of the four Japanese hostages. We support the ongoing efforts to guarantee their safety," a Japanese diplomat based in the Kazakh commercial capital Almaty told Reuters.

Japan is one of the major donors to Kyrgyzstan's reform program.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.