Gunfight breaks out between two former Soviet republics

A gunfight erupted on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan early on Monday, killing at least one soldier and wounding several others.

The two former Soviet republics have been trading blame for the incident, with the Tajik border service saying that Kyrgyz forces fired shots at its troops from rifles and machine guns “without any reason.”

One Tajik soldier was killed and two other injured in the clashes, it added.

Kyrgyzstan claimed that one of its patrols encountered a unit of Tajik troops in an area where they shouldn’t have been, in line with earlier agreements between Bishkek and Dushanbe.

“Ignoring the legitimate demands of the Kyrgyz side to withdraw from the area, the Tajik border guards opened fire,” the press service of the Kyrgyz border guards told RIA Novosti news agency.

According to preliminary data, the shootout, in which mortars were also used, didn’t result in any fatalities or injuries among Kyrgyz troops, it said.

Tensions spike between the two Central Asian countries from time to time as they are unable to fully agree on their 1,000km-long border in some areas.

There were also clashes on the border between two other former Soviet republics – Azerbaijan and Armenia - on Monday, with the sides losing around 50 troops each. Baku and Yerevan have been at odds over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh since the early 1990s.