DUSHANBE, October 7, 2010, Asia-Plus – 28 people were killed in a Wednesday’s helicopter crash.

We will recall that the National Guard press service reported yesterday that four crew members were killed and three technical personnel were injured in the helicopter crash Wednesday morning.

We will recall that the Russian-built MI-8 of the National Guard went down in Kamarob Gorge in Rasht district, some 200 kilometers east of Dushanbe, yesterday morning.  According to the National Guard press service, the crash was caused by technical reasons and a special commission has been set up to investigate the cause of the crash.

The source at one of power-wielding structures of Tajikistan told Asia-Plus that 21 servicemen of the special operations unit of the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), Alpha, where also on board of the helicopter that crashed in Rasht.  The bodies of the killed servicemen of the National Guard and Alpha were transported to Dushanbe.

So far, only the names of the National Guard servicemen killed in the crash have become known.  They are Colonel Davron Samadov, Lieutenant-Colonel Zafar Olimov, Lieutenant-Colonel Fayzali Safarov, Senior Lieutenant Obid Zohidov, Senior Lieutenant Begmat Komilov, Warrant Officer Sirojiddin Ibodov, and the helicopter commander Atakhon Ahmadov.

It was the second reported crash of a military helicopter in Rasht this month.

In the meantime, it has become known that a truck that had servicemen of the National Guard onboard was blown up by a landmine in Rasht district yesterday.  At least six servicemen were reported killed.  The number of the wounded servicemen is being specified, those who sustained serious wounds have been transported to hospital in Dushanbe.