Russia Agrees to Stop Shelling Afghanistan
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KABUL, Afghanistan — Russia agreed Saturday that its forces in the Central Asian republic of Tajikistan will stop cross-border artillery attacks on northern Afghanistan, an Afghan spokesman said.
War broke out last year in the former Soviet republic after former Communists ousted a loose alliance of self-styled democrats and Islamic fundamentalists. Tens of thousands of Tajik opposition fighters crossed into Afghanistan, where they have been joined by Islamic fundamentalists.
The agreement came as Kabul Radio reported that 20 people were killed and 50 wounded by a Russian bombing raid in northern Badakshan province Saturday.
In Moscow, the Itar-Tass news agency said that on Friday night, 200 Tajik and Afghan rebels tried to cross the Pyandzh River into Tajikistan but were beaten back.
The Afghan-Russian agreement was reached in two hours of talks between Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and a Russian delegation led by Yevgeni Primakov, a special envoy of President Boris N. Yeltsin, presidential spokesman Abdul Aziz Morad said.
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