Three people shot dead at Tajik-Afghan border

DUSHANBE, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Three people were shot dead and four injured in two illegal New Year attempts to cross into ex-Soviet Tajikistan from Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Russian border guards patrolling the frontier said on Saturday.

He said the first incident occurred just before 7 a.m. when border guards opened fire on an armed group attempting to cross. Three men were killed and two were injured.

He said automatic weapons, grenades and six kg (13 pounds) of narcotics were found at the site.

In the second incident, two men were injured late on Friday when border guards in the Pyondzh region shot at an armed group of 20 which had crossed into Tajikistan.

Tajikistan, beset by a civil war from 1992-97, shares hundreds of km of frontier with Afghanistan. Authorities, backed by a large contingent of Russian troops, are battling to contain a surge of drug smuggling from its southern neighbour which is the source of half the world's opium supply.