Two dead in Tajikistan prison break

A prison guard and prisoner were killed during a jailbreak by a trio of "Islamist" inmates in Tajikistan's north, police in the ex-Soviet country said Saturday. An interior ministry spokesman told AFP that prison guards in the city of Khujand opened fire on the three inmates as they attempted to escape late Friday, killing one and detaining another whom they wounded.
Only one of the three convicts, serving lengthy sentences on extremism charges, successfully escaped from the prison, according to the ministry. "The three militants had planned to join the ranks of ISIS," the spokesman said, referring to the Islamic State extremist group the government regularly cites as a source of extremism in the country.