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Moscow-led bloc kicks off active phase of counter-terror drills on Tajik-Afghan border

Under the scenario of the drills, the CSTO reconnaissance aircraft spotted the advance of two columns of vehicles with notional militants in the area near the Tajik-Afghan border

KHARB-MAIDON PRACTICE RANGE /Republic of Tajikistan/, October 23. /TASS/. The member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) kicked off the active phase of joint counter-terror drills in Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan, TASS reported from the scene.

The post-Soviet security bloc’s maneuvers began with air reconnaissance of the area of the drills conducted by a pair of L-39 planes of the Tajik Air Force at the Kharb-Maidon training ground 20 km from the border with Afghanistan.

Under the scenario of the drills, the CSTO reconnaissance aircraft spotted the advance of two columns of vehicles with notional militants in the area near the Tajik-Afghan border.

A border guard detachment of Tajikistan’s State National Security Committee and a mobile group of border guard troops on cross country vehicles were the first to engage in a battle with the mock enemy’s forward units.

The notional terrorists’ advance was also thwarted by the Moscow-led security bloc’s special operations forces that took advantage of the terrain and the surprise effect to strike the enemy by close-range concentrated fire from small arms and grenade launchers, forcing it to alter the direction of its movement.

Overall, the post-Soviet security bloc’s Echelon 2021 and Search 2021 special drills and the Interaction 2021 joint maneuvers involve 4,000 troops and over 500 items of military hardware. The drills are running at the Kharb-Maidon and Momirak training grounds on the territory of Tajikistan near the border with Afghanistan under the direction of Russian Central Military District Commander Colonel-General Alexander Lapin.