Kyrgyzstan has reported the killing of three citizens after Uzbekistan\u2019s troops opened fire at the disputed frontier of the two Central Asian countries.<\/p>\n
The Kyrgyz National Security Committee did not say in Friday\u2019s announcement whether the dead were civilians or border troops.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout regaining consciousness, they died from their gunshot wounds,\u201d the statement said, adding that it had taken place on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Later on Friday, Uzbekistan\u2019s border service said in a statement that its troops were \u201cforced to use weapons in the prescribed manner\u201d against men that it described as \u201cviolators\u201d carrying a \u201clarge consignment of goods\u201d into Uzbek territory.<\/p>\n
The men had tried to take possession of its border troops\u2019 weapons, it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, three violators were wounded and their accomplices took them (back) to the territory of Kyrgyzstan,\u201d the statement said, without mentioning that they later died.<\/p>\n
Serious incident
\nIt was the most serious incident to occur at the Kyrgyz-Uzbek frontier in recent years.<\/p>\n
Both countries confirmed that their foreign ministers had spoken in a phone call on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parties stressed the need for joint efforts to avoid negative consequences in the border area, as well as to continue work to strengthen and expand Kyrgyz-Uzbek cooperation on the basis of friendship and good neighbourliness,\u201d Kyrgyzstan\u2019s foreign ministry said.<\/p>\n
Uzbekistan\u2019s foreign ministry said the conversation between acting foreign minister Vladimir Norov and Kyrgyz counterpart Jeenbek Kulubayev had been \u201cwarm and friendly\u201d and noted that a meeting between border service representatives had also taken place on Friday.<\/p>\n
Smuggling is a common problem in the region, where border communities clash regularly over land for grazing animals and water resources.<\/p>\n
Improved ties
\nRelations between the two neighbours had been poor but improved markedly after the death of long-ruling hardline Uzbek President Islam Karimov in 2016.<\/p>\n
His successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, went about mending Tashkent\u2019s frayed ties with neighbours.<\/p>\n
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan last year signed an agreement to resolve the border dispute, but the deal was not ratified after Kyrgyz citizens voiced dissatisfaction over terms that guaranteed the Uzbek side use of a reservoir located in Kyrgyzstan.<\/p>\n
The most explosive conflict in Central Asia at present is at Kyrgyzstan\u2019s border with Tajikistan, where several dozen people were killed following unprecedented clashes involving military units last year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kyrgyzstan has reported the killing of three citizens after Uzbekistan\u2019s troops opened fire at the disputed frontier of the two Central Asian countries. The Kyrgyz National Security Committee did not say in Friday\u2019s announcement whether the dead were civilians or border troops. \u201cWithout regaining consciousness, they died from their gunshot wounds,\u201d the statement said, adding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[123,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iras.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}