16 Sep 2019 19:45

Serviceman killed in Tajik-Kyrgyz border skirmish

OSH/BISHKEK. Sept 16 (Interfax) - A Kyrgyz border guard has been killed in a skirmish on the border with Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan's State Border Guard Service told Interfax on Monday.

"The Tajik side was the first to open fire, shelling the Kyrgyz border outpost Maksat and then the temporary border post Sai in the Leilek district of the Batken region. According to preliminary data, one Kyrgyz border guard was killed," the agency said.

Kyrgyz border guards fired back, it said.

The skirmish has now ended, the press service said.

A Kyrgyz government source told Interfax that Tajik border guards had fired a mortar against a Kyrgyz border tower. Local authorities ordered the evacuation of villages bordering Tajikistan, he said.