Eleven militants were killed by Kyrgyz troops near the border with China Thursday, according to the Kyrgyz border service.
The masked militants, carrying hunting rifles and knives, were spotted in Pikertyk, some 40 km from the Kyrgyz-Chinese border, by camp ranger Alexander Barykin, who was brutally killed by them, Xinhua quoted State Border Service chief Raimberdiev Duyshembiev as saying in a press conference here Friday.
Border guards later located and surrounded the gunmen and all the militants were killed in a gunfight after they refused to surrender, he said.
The Kyrgyz foreign ministry said earlier that Kyrgyzstan and China were working closely in the fight against the "three evil forces" of separatism, extremism and terrorism.
The Chinese Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said the militants killed in the incident could not be identified.