Officials: 31 wounded in Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border clash

MOSCOW (AP) — The Kyrgyz Health Ministry says clashes on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have wounded 31 people. According to the Kyrgyz border service, the fighting erupted early Friday morning, when Tajik forces fired at Kyrgyz border guards. Tajik border officials, meanwhile, charged that the Kyrgyz forces subjected Tajik villages near the border “to intensive mortar bombardment and shelling” from “all types of available heavy weapons and firearms.” It was not immediately clear what ignited the clashes. However, the serpentine Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border is often a tense area. In 2021, at least 55 people died in clashes that erupted near the border in a dispute over water rights and the installation of surveillance cameras by Tajikistan.