MOSCOW: Police in Tajikistan said on Saturday they had killed 13 rebels and had closed in on a sacked deputy defense minister accused of leading gun attacks around the capital Dushanbe which left nine police officers dead.

Following Friday’s attacks, security forces in the Central Asia nation pursued the insurgents, led by renegade general Abdulkhalim Mirzo Nazarzod, to a gorge some 150 km (95 miles) from the city.

“The territory has been completely surrounded, the operation to apprehend and neutralize the criminals is under way,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

The outbreak of violence has raised fears of a return to unrest in Tajikistan, an impoverished Muslim nation still volatile after a 1992-97 civil war.