The arrests follow two armed raids last month on suspected militant hide-outs in the south of the impoverished Central Asian nation that killed eight militants and one security officer.

Experts say such clashes may be evidence that more insurgents are fleeing fighting in nearby Pakistan and Afghanistan and returning to their home countries.

That has raised the prospect that already fragile Central Asian nations like Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan could face new violence or instability.

The State Security Service said in a statement that five of those detained over the past month were trained in foreign terrorist camps. Others have been involved in fighting against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, the statement said.

They were arrested for "aiding terrorists operating in Kyrgyzstan to manufacture counterfeit passports and providing them with safe houses, vehicles, communications equipment and food," the statement said.

Kyrgyz security agents clashed with members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan _ a group with alleged ties to al-Qaida _ on June 22 in the western city of Jalal-Abad. Five militants and a security officer died.

Five days later, security forces killed another three alleged terrorists accused of belonging to the Islamic Jihad Group in a shootout in the southern Osh region. The group is an obscure organization that the government in neighboring Uzbekistan has claimed is a splinter group of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Experts have warned other former Soviet republics could also be destabilized by militants returning home.

In Azerbaijan on Friday, a court opened criminal proceedings against 13 Azeri men who fought in Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying they trained in Iran between 2005 and 2008 before fighting in Afghanistan with groups allied to Taliban fighters.

The men were detained by Azerbaijani border agents in 2008 as they returned home, the court said.