DUSHANBE (Reuters) – One Tajik border guard was killed and three were wounded in a clash with Kyrgyz border guards on Tuesday, four Tajik security sources told Reuters, a new bout of violence between Russia’s Central Asian allies.
Clashes along the poorly demarcated and often debated frontier between the two former Soviet republics which both host Russian military bases are common, but occasionally escalate to full-scale hostilities involving heavy weaponry.
According to Tajik sources and a statement by the Kyrgyz border guards, the firefight broke out in the Kekh area close to the Tajik city of Isfara where a similar incident took place on June 3.
The sides accused each other of opening fire first. Kyrgyzstan has reported no casualties. The sides said border guard commanders and local governors were in talks regarding the incident.
(Reporting by Nazarali Pirnazarov, Writing by Olzhas Auyezov, editing by Ed Osmond)
