Strictly, The President Of Kazakhstan Ordered Shooting In Places Without Warning To Quench The Insurgency

Presiden Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. (Wikimedia Commons/Kremlin.ru/The Presidential Press and Information Office)

JAKARTA - The president of Kazakhstan announced on Friday that he had ordered his troops to fire on the spot in response to harassment by what he called bandits and terrorists, a day after Russia sent troops to crush insurgencies across the country.

Security forces slowly took control of the streets of the main city of Almaty on Friday morning, but gunfire was still heard after days of unrest in which dozens of people were killed and public buildings searched and torched.

"The militants have not laid down their weapons, they continue to commit crimes or are preparing for it. The war against them must be fought to the end. Anyone who does not surrender will be crushed," President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said in a televised broadcast, citing Reuters.

"I have given orders to law enforcement agencies and soldiers to shoot to kill without warning," he stressed.

Tokayev blamed foreign-trained terrorists for the worst violence in the Central Asian country's 30 years of independence.

CSTO joint military force. (Source: CSTO)

Separately, Russia's Defense Ministry, quoted by Interfax, said more than 70 aircraft were flying around the clock to bring Russian troops to Kazakhstan. They are now helping control Almaty's main airport, which was retaken on Thursday from protesters.

The demonstrations, which began in response to rising fuel prices, swelled into a broad movement against the government and former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81, the longest-serving ruler of any former Soviet country.

He ceded the presidency to Tokayev three years ago, but his family is widely believed to have retained power in Nur-Sultan, the purpose-built capital that bears his name.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry said 26 'armed criminals' had been 'liquidated', while 18 policemen and members of the national guard were killed since the start of the protests, figures that did not appear to have been updated since Thursday. State television reported more than 3,700 arrests.

On Friday morning, fresh gunfire rang out near the main square in Almaty, where soldiers had fought protesters all day earlier. Reuters correspondents saw armored personnel carriers occupying the square.

A few hundred meters away, a corpse lay in a heavily damaged civilian car. In another part of the city, an ammunition store was searched. Widespread unrest has been reported in other cities in the country of 19 million people. The internet has been shut down since Wednesday, making it difficult to determine the full extent of the violence.

Moscow's swift moves demonstrate the Kremlin's readiness to use force to maintain its influence in the former Soviet Union. The troops were sent under the umbrella of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) consisting of Russia and five former Soviet allies. It said its troops would number around 2,500 and would stay in Kazakhstan for a few days or weeks.

"Moscow "is defending Kazakhstan and doing what allies are supposed to do", Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington was continuing to monitor the Russian-led deployment. The United States, he said, would monitor any human rights violations, as well as "any action that could put a predicate for the confiscation of Kazakh institutions.

The Tokayev government said Russia was not involved in fighting or exterminating militants.