DUSHANBE, October 30, 2010, Asia-Plus – Fifteen Kyrgyz families have been moved from the village of Kok-Tash on the Kyrgyz-Tajik border in Kyrgyzstan''s southern Batken region as Tajik security forces continue counterterrorist operations in the nearby Tajik village of Chorkuh, RFE/RL''s Kyrgyz Service reported on October 29.

Kyrgyz Border Guard Service officials told RFE/RL that Tajik security forces and police located about a dozen armed Islamic extremists in the Tajik village of Chorkuh on October 28.

Chorkuh is on the opposite side of the border from the tiny Kyrgyz village of Kok-Tash.

The Kyrgyz Border Guard Service has stepped up its control of the border this week due to the situation on the Tajik side of the border.

Border Guard Service Deputy Chairman Cholponbek Turusbekov told RFE/RL that at this point no additional forces were needed to prevent armed militants illegally crossing the border from Tajikistan into Kyrgyzstan.