BISHKEK -- Six Kyrgyz nationals and three Tajik nationals were wounded after clashes broke out along a section of the border between the two countries, authorities and medics say.
Kyrgyzstan's Border Service said that four Kyrgyz border guards, a local lawmaker, and a resident, were wounded in the December 18 clashes in the southern Batken region.
Two of them sustained gunshots, the service said.
Medical staff at a hospital in the Tajik town of Isfara told RFE/RL that three Tajik civilians -- 14-year-old Umedjon Safarov, 23-year-old Asrorkhon Asadzoda, and 59-year-old Sodiqboi Nabiev -- were wounded.
There has been no official statement on the incident from the Tajik authorities.
Many border areas in Central Asian former Soviet republics have been disputed since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The situation is particularly complicated near the numerous exclaves in the volatile Ferghana Valley, where the borders of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan meet.
Since January, there were at least 10 clashes along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, four of which were deadly.
The most recent clash in September claimed four lives.
