AKIPRESS.COM - A Tajik border guard has been killed in clashes with alleged drug traffickers trying to cross the border into the country from Afghanistan, the RFE/RL reports.

Authorities in Tajikistan said on December 3 that four border guards were injured in the incident about 220 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe.

In a statement, the Tajik National Security Committee said the border guards tried to stop "a group of Afghan drug contrabandists."

"The commander of the border guard unit colonel Khairiddin Akhtamov heroically died in the shootout. Four soldiers were injured," the statement said.

The border guards seized 33 kilograms of narcotics.

Tajikistan has a 1,344-kilometer border with Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium and heroin.

Clashes on the border between Tajik border guards and Afghan drug smugglers are common as are kidnappings of Tajiks by Afghan smugglers who then swap them for arrested traffickers.