An Israeli national living in Kazakhstan was killed in the violent riots that have been shaking the country, the Foreign Ministry confirmed on Saturday.
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According to available details, Levan Kogeashvili, 22, from the southern city of Ashdod who was attending dental school in the country, was killed in an apparent drive-by shooting near his home in Almaty, on Friday.
"Shots were fired at him when he was in a car right next to his house. No one knows who fired – if it was protesters or local security forces," Rostislav Edelstein, a relative of Kogeashvili, told Israeli media.
Kazakh Ambassador to Israel, Satybaldy Burshakov, to i24NEWS on the latest in #Kazakhstan, says the unrest all over the country is now stabilized, adds 'operations are underway to detain the criminal groups' pic.twitter.com/hQyk3K7lHk
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) January 9, 2022
The Foreign Ministry said it was assisting the family with the necessary arrangements to bring Kogeashvili to burial in Israel.
Dozens of people have been killed over the past week in Kazakhstan in the worst violence experienced in the Central Asian nation, a major oil and uranium producer since it became independent in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Why #Kazakhstan matters to the United States, Russia and China pic.twitter.com/BWLV5vXf2P
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) January 9, 2022
Saturday saw Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev order his security forces to "shoot without warning" at protesters, seeking to crush the unrest.
Addressing the nation on Friday, Tokayev claimed the riots, which erupted last week over rising fuel prices, had been "masterminded by well-trained terrorist bandits" from both inside and outside the country.
On Friday, state media reported that 18 security personnel and 26 "armed criminals" had been killed in the riots.
Israel issued a travel warning for Kazakhstan on Thursday, urging Israelis to avoid any nonessential trips to the country.
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