DUSHANBE, October 18, 2010, Asia-Plus – Major Fakhriddin Khidirov, an officer from the special operations unit, Alpha, the State Committee for National Security (SCNS), was saved by a miracle after a helicopter of the National Guard went down in Kamarob Gorge, Rasht district on October 6.

The source at one of the country’s power-wielding structures told Asia-Plus Monday afternoon that seven National Guard personnel (four crew members and three technical support staff) and 19 servicemen of the SCNS special operations unit were killed and one serviceman of the SCNS special operations unit was seriously injured after the National Guard helicopter crashed in Rasht on October 6.  “He was taken to the hospital in Dushanbe and due to efforts of physicians his life is now out of danger,” the source said.

The source at the National Medical Center (Republican Hospital # 3 in Dushanbe) has confirmed that Major Khidirov was taken to the center and then he was transferred to the military hospital.  “He regained consciousness recently and he is now on the way to recovery,” he added.

In the meantime, the SCNS says thirteen Alpha servicemen were killed in the helicopter crash and six others are still reported missing.

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, in the morning of October 6.  According to the preliminary data, the crash was apparently caused by a technical problem.  A special commission set up to investigate the cause of the crash is still working.  It was the second reported crash of a military helicopter in Rasht.

Tajik government forces launched a special operation to apprehend former opposition fighters in Rasht on October 22 following an ambush in Kamarob Gorge on September 19, in which at least 28 army conscripts were killed.