OSH, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) – A bitter standoff between fearful Uzbek and Kyrgyz neighbourhoods gripped Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Osh on Thursday after the worst ethnic violence in the Central Asian nation in 20 years.

In Osh, the scene of most clashes, Uzbek neighbourhoods have barricaded themselves for fear of further violence, setting up unofficial demarcation lines separating them from Kyrgyz parts.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) – A view from a mountain top towering over the Kyrgyz city of Osh reveals a maze of charred ruins and smouldering rubble that once formed the heart of the city’s biggest Uzbek neighbourhood.

Thousands of people, mainly women and children, have fled the area since last week when the dusty streets outside their homes turned into an ethnic battleground.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) – Kyrgyz troops patrolled the burned-out streets of the southern city of Osh on Wednesday to maintain a fragile peace between ethnic groups after days of fighting that forced tens of thousands to flee.

Mainly Muslim Kyrgyzstan has been on edge since a revolt in April toppled the president and brought an interim government to power in the impoverished Central Asian state, which hosts U.S. and Russian military bases.

OSH, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) – Kyrgyz troops patrolled the burned-out streets of the southern city of Osh on Wednesday trying to maintain a fragile peace between feuding ethnic groups after days of fierce fighting.

Lying at the heart of Central Asia’s most flammable and ethnically divided corners, mainly Muslim Kyrgyzstan has been on edge since a violent revolt in April toppled its president and brought an interim government to power.

BISHKEK (Reuters) – The United Nations urged Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday to prevent the spread of “indiscriminate” ethnic violence in the region bordering Afghanistan and said the number of refugees fleeing the clashes may soon exceed 100,000.

At least 170 people have been killed in the cities of Osh and Jalalabad in the deadliest ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan in 20 years. Witnesses said gangs armed with automatic rifles, iron bars and machetes set fire to houses and shot fleeing residents.

BISHKEK (Reuters) – The number of refugees fleeing the deadliest ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan in 20 years may soon rise to 100,000, a U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.

Clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbek residents in the cities of Osh and Jalalabad began on Thursday last week and escalated over the weekend. Witnesses said gangs with automatic rifles, iron bars and machetes set fire to houses and shot fleeing residents.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that new U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program did not oblige Moscow to scrap a controversial deal to deliver surface-to-air missiles to Tehran.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was also in talks on building more nuclear power plants in Iran in addition to the Bushehr site, due to open in August after years of delay. Such action would be sure to rile the West.

MOSCOW, June 1 (Reuters) – More than a month after a bloody
revolt deposed president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan remains a
headache for key regional players — the United States, Russia
and China — and the threat of civil war has never been bigger.

The United States leases the Manas air base, which provides
significant support for U.S. and NATO operations in Afghanistan.
Washington’s erstwhile Cold War foe Russia, which has long
dreamed of evicting the United States from ex-Soviet Central
Asia, also leases a local base, in Kant.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s top drugs official gave a list of Afghan and Central Asian drug barons to U.S. anti-drugs tsar Gil Kerlikowske Sunday, but criticized U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan for failing to stem opium output.

Russia is the world’s biggest per capita user of heroin — all of it flowing from Afghanistan — and President Dmitry Medvedev has called drug abuse among the country’s youth a threat to national security.