KGB Troops Loyal to Tajiks’ Leader Fire on Crowd, Kill 4

KGB troops loyal to the embattled president of this Central Asian republic fired on a crowd of unarmed protesters Sunday, killing at least four, witnesses said.

The shooting took place in front of secret police headquarters, where President Rakhman Nabiyev was hiding in a bunker.

Muslim opposition groups negotiating with the hard-line former Communist government immediately broke off talks on a transfer of power.

At least 14 people have been reported killed in a week of unrest aimed at ousting Nabiyev, who was installed after the hard-line coup in Moscow last August. Opposition groups claim the death toll is as high as 40 to 60, but the figures could not be confirmed.

Nabiyev has been locked in a power struggle with Muslim opposition groups since he took office. The opposition has demanded greater religious and political freedoms.

Elsewhere, Azerbaijani forces said they recaptured their stronghold of Shusha in Nagorno-Karabakh, the mostly Christian Armenian region within Muslim Azerbaijan. Armenian officials denied the claim but said fighting continued Sunday.

Armenia appealed to the United Nations Security Council to send peacekeepers to Nagorno-Karabakh, where more than 1,500 people have died in fighting in recent years.