DUSHANBE, September 28, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- The death toll in a September 19 attack on a convoy of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) in Rasht district has risen to 26 as another soldier died on September 26 of wounds sustained in the attack.

Faridoun Mahmadaliyev, a spokesman for a MoD, told Asia-Plus Tuesday afternoon that the 19-year-old Musulmonqul Dodokalonov was hospitalized in serious condition and died on September 26.

Fourteen other officers and soldiers who sustained various wounds in the Rasht attack are continuing to undertake medical treatment in the hospital of the Ministry of Defense in Dushanbe, the spokesman added.

We will recall that the military convoy was ambushed in the Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, some 250 kilometers east of Dushanbe, on September 19, at 12:30 pm.  23 soldiers were killed and several others were wounded.  Two servicemen died of wounds sustained in the attack on September 20.

Tajik law enforcement authorities have blamed former opposition commanders Mullo Abdullo, Mirzokhouja Ahmadov and Alovuddin Davlatov for the ambush.  The MoD officials said the gunmen are believed to have included militants from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as fighters from Russia''s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.