UK: In the most recent wave of violence in the former Soviet Union, fighting has erupted along the disputed border between Kyrgyzstan and its neighbor Tajikistan in Central Asia. 24 people have died as a result of the fighting.
Despite the ceasefire agreement, the two poor landlocked countries have accused each other of resuming fighting in a disputed territory.
The Kyrgyz Border Service said in a statement on Friday that its forces were thwarting the Tajik attacks.
It added that "intensified fighting is taking place in some areas, and the Tajik side continues to hold the position of the Kyrgyz side."
Later, the Kyrgyz Health Ministry reported that 24 people were killed and 87 were injured.
The Russian news agency Interfax did not disclose the number of victims in the armed forces.
According to the Russian news agency RIA, the head of the Kyrgyz State Committee on National Security, Kamchibek Tashiev, suffered a lot of military casualties.
He said that no one can guarantee what will happen tomorrow as the situation is difficult.
According to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Emergency Situations, more than 136,000 civilians have been evacuated from the conflict zone.
According to Japarov's office, at a regional summit in Uzbekistan, President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadir Japarov and his Tajik counterpart Emomali Rakhmon decided to order a ceasefire and an army withdrawal.
Fighting has been reported in the southern Butken province of Kyrgyzstan, which is bordered by Tajikistan to the south, west and north, and Uzbekistan to the north and east. Additionally, Vorukh, a Tajik exclave, is included.
The region is renowned for its complex political and ethnic geography, and it was the scene of similar hostilities last year that nearly sparked a war.
Conflicts often occur at a non-defined boundary, but they usually end quickly.
The conflict follows when Russia invades Ukraine and a new ceasefire ensues between the former Soviet states of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
According to Kyrgyzstan, Tajik forces used tanks, armored personnel carriers and mortars to shell the airport of the Kyrgyz city of Batken and surrounding areas after entering at least one Kyrgyz village.
In return, Tajikistan claimed that Kyrgyz forces had used "heavy weapons" to bomb an outpost and seven villages.
According to Timur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the remote villages at the center of the conflict were not economically important, but both sides gave it an exaggerated political importance.
Umrov claimed that an exchange of territory intended to end the conflict was impossible as both governments had become dependent on "populist, nationalist rhetoric".
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