; Islamic and pro-democracy rebels are fighting a bloody civil war against the ex-communist rulers of Tajikistan, the Central Asian republic on the far southern reaches of the collapsed Soviet Union. Thousands have died since rebels captured President Rakhmon Nabiyev, the former Communist Party boss, last May. In a stark demonstration of the war's pitiless nature, a Russian mercenary, left, ended the life of an Afghan rebel, wounded as he fled home across the border along the supply route for smuggled mujahedin arms. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, fundamentalist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's forces rained rockets on Kabul last week, killing hundreds in renewed attacks...
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