Kazakhstan's president rejected calls for talks with protesters and authorised his forces to shoot to kill without warning.

NEWSRAEL: Update - Foreign Ministry: A 22-year-old Israeli was killed in riots in Kazakhstan
Ben Kojiashvili, a 22-year-old Israeli, was killed last night by gunfire in the Kazakh city of Almaty as part of the country's violent riots, the Foreign Ministry said today (Saturday). Lavan has lived in Kazakhstan in recent years, and the Foreign Ministry is in contact with his parents who are in Kazakhstan and with his family in Israel and assists in transferring the body for burial in Israel.

From the "Arab News" sitecome this report: 

Kazakhstan's president on Friday rejected calls for talks with protesters after days of unprecedented unrest, vowing to destroy "armed bandits" and authorising his forces to shoot to kill without warning.

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said earlier that order had mostly been restored across the country, after protests this week over fuel prices escalated into widespread violence, especially in main city Almaty.

"Terrorists continue to damage property... and use weapons against civilians. I have given the order to law enforcement to shoot to kill without warning," Tokayev said in his third televised address to the nation this week.

He ridiculed calls from abroad for negotiations as "nonsense".

"We are dealing with armed and trained bandits, both local and foreign. With bandits and terrorists. So they must be destroyed. This will be done shortly."

Long seen as one the most stable of the ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, energy-rich Kazakhstan is facing its biggest crisis in decades.

Protesters stormed government buildings in Almaty on Wednesday and fought running battles with police and the military, with officials saying 748 security officers were wounded and 18 killed.

Tokayev said Almaty had been attacked by "20,000 bandits" with a "clear plan of attack, coordination of actions and high combat readiness."

He gave his "special thanks" to Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) sent troops to Kazakhstan to help quell the unrest.