Turkmenistan says 15 dead after an explosion that shook town, lambasts Russian m

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Turkmenistan says 15 dead after an explosion that shook town, lambasts Russian

media coverage

By The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 42 minutes ago

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan - The authoritarian government of Turkmenistan said

Sunday that 15 people died after a large explosion rocked a town outside the

Turkmen capital earlier this week and lashed out at the coverage of the blast by

the Russian media.

The government press service said two soldiers and 13 civilians died as a result

of the explosion in Abadan, a town 12 miles (20 kilometres) from the capital,

Ashgabat.

The blasts, which began late on Thursday and went on until early Friday, were

caused by overheating at a fireworks warehouse that triggered further blasts at

a military depot where outdated, Soviet-made ammunition was kept, the press

service said in a statement.

An amateur, low-resolution video posted Sunday on a social networking site,

however, appears to demonstrate the incident was the result of high explosives

detonating. It showed a giant black plume of smoke rising after a blast

accompanied by a loud bang and people and cars rushing away from the site.

The video was broadcast by Russian television and posted on independent websites

critical of Turkmenistan's government. Russian media claimed dozens died and

were wounded during the explosions.

Although websites critical of Turkmen authorities are filtered in Turkmenistan,

many are able to watch Russian television channels via numerous satellite dishes

that dot every apartment building.

The Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Russian television

reports about the scale of deaths and destruction are misleading and inaccurate.

Meanwhile, a human rights group said nearly 200 people have died in the blast.

About a half of them are military officers and servicemen, said Khronika

Turkmenistana, a website run by Vienna-based Turkmen dissident Farid

Tukhbatullin.

It cited unnamed locals who also claimed that authorities detained anyone who

was trying to take pictures or videos of the debris in Abadan.

Online satellite images show that a large munitions dump is located at the

approximate site of the blast, around half a kilometre from apartment blocks.

Abadan is the site of a gas-fired power plant that acts as a major electricity

supplier to Ashgabat. Power supplies to the capital failed sporadically Thursday

evening.

Arms depot explosions are not unusual across the ex-Soviet Central Asia.

In July 2008, a fire spread to a Soviet-era military base in a town in

neighbouring Uzbekistan, setting off a chain of blasts that lasted for hours.