18 military personnel die in Turkmenistan, circumstances unclear

AKIPRESS.COM - Eighteen military personnel, including a major and a lieutenant, have died in Turkmenistan amid reports about rising tensions along the border with Afghanistan, where Taliban militants have been on an offensive to capture districts in the region, RFE/RL reported. Two separate sources told RFE/RL on July 20 that of 18 deceased military personnel, six had been returned to their relatives in the eastern Lebap region that borders Afghanistan.
An RFE/RL correspondent in the region confirmed the information, adding that he visited burial sites of two soldiers in two villages in the region on July 19 and was able to talk to the relatives of other soldiers who were brought to the region in coffins.
Officials told relatives that the soldiers died in a mass traffic accident near Ashgabat, the capital, and did not allow them to see the dead men, who were buried in closed coffins.
It remains unclear if a massive deadly traffic accident with the involvement of military vehicles happened near Ashgabat in recent days.
The sources, however, told RFE/RL that the bodies were not brought to Lebap from Ashgabat, but from the neighboring Mary region that lies next to Afghanistan and where a major border crossing with Afghanistan, Serhetabat, is located.
One of the sources who is close to the Defense Ministry told RFE/RL that two of the six men buried in Lebap were an army major and a lieutenant.
Neither the Defense Ministry nor the Interior Ministry would comment to RFE/RL about the situation.
There have been traffic accidents in the past in which military personnel were killed. Last September, at least five soldiers died in a traffic accident in the Mary region. Independent media reports said at the time that 11 soldiers died in the accident.
There have also been several deadly incidents along the Turkmen-Afghan border in recent years as well. In June 2018, shoot-outs near Serhetabat left 25 Turkmen soldiers dead.
In recent weeks, Turkmenistan has been sending heavy weaponry, helicopters, and other aircraft to areas along the 800-kilometer Turkmen-Afghan border as the security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply with Taliban fighters advancing on provincial centers and even some border crossings.