DUSHANBE (TASS) — An attack on an outpost on the Tajik-Uzbek border was carried out by militants of the Islamic State (ex ISIS/ISIL), who had come from Afghanistan, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said on Wednesday.

“They [the attackers] crossed the border from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with a special task, all of them are members of the IS terror group”, the intelligence agency said in a statement.

According to the State Committee for National Security, the gunmen had arrived in Tajikistan’s Qabodiyon district on November 3 from north-eastern Afghanistan’s Kunduz province. During the interrogation, the terrorists admitted that the Ishkobod outpost was “the most convenient place” for them.

Early on Wednesday, an armed group of 20 individuals wearing masks attacked an outpost on the Tajik-Uzbek border near Rudaki, some 50 km to the west of Dushanbe, the press centre of the Border Forces of Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security reported. During an operation conducted by security forces, 15 gunmen were killed and five others were detained. A soldier of the Border Forces and another staff member of the Ministry of Interior of Tajikistan were killed in the assault.

Tajikistan today celebrates Constitution Day as a public holiday.