Clashes in and around Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe have killed 17 people.
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The interior ministry said eight policemen were killed in the attacks, in the town of Vahdat just outside Dushanbe and at a central interior ministry building.
Officials blamed sacked Deputy Defence Minister Gen Aduhalim Nazarzoda, saying he was leading a "terrorist group".
The US embassy said it had closed and warned that the clashes "may be precursors to other acts of violence".
In a statement given to a state-owned news agency, the interior ministry said that early on Friday morning an "organised criminal group" had launched armed attacks on Vahdat's internal affairs department and on the central government building in Dushanbe.
"As a result, a large amount of weapons and ammunition were seized and taken away by that terrorist group," the statement said.
The statement added that "a group of terrorists" led by Gen Nazarzoda had fled towards the Romit Gorge area and that authorities were searching for him and his accomplices.
The unrest is rare for Tajikistan and comes after recent renewed controversy of the role of Islam in public life in the country, which is majority Muslim but has had a secular political order since independence.
In recent years economic hardship has been seen as a contributing to a renewed interest in Islam - including more radical forms - among young Tajiks.
Last week the justice ministry issued a ban on the activities of the Islamic Revival Party, the only legal faith-based party in ex-Soviet Central Asia.
Gen Nazarzoda is a former member of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), which fought government forces during the civil war in the 1990s and joined the cabinet after a peace agreement was signed in 1997.
Correspondents say the latest attacks seem to suggest a growing conflict between the government of President Emomali Rakhmon and former UTO warlords.
Mr Rakhmon has been in power for two decades and was re-elected in 2013 with 83.6% of the vote.
International observers said the election was quiet and peaceful but "without a real choice".
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