By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
May 8, 2022
Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government says it is investigating reports that rockets have been fired into Tajikistan from Afghan territory.
The Islamic State (IS) extremist group said earlier on May 8 that it had fired eight rockets from Afghanistan into the territory of neighboring Tajikistan, according to an Afghan media report.
The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency quoted an IS press release claiming that the militants had fired the rockets from the Khawaja Ghar district of Afghanistan’s Takhar Province toward unspecified military targets in Tajikistan on May 7.
But in a statement, Tajikistan said that “bullets,” not rockets, were fired “accidentally” into Tajik territory during a firefight on the Afghan side of the border between Taliban forces and IS militants.
The press center of the State Committee for National Security said border troops have been put on alert, but added that the situation at the border “is considered stable and is under control” after “bullets accidentally crossed the territory of our country.”
No casualties were reported. Neither account could be verified independently and there was no confirmation by the Taliban.
The local IS affiliate, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (IS-K), is a foe of the Taliban group that took over Afghanistan in August following a blitz offensive amid the withdrawal of U.S.-led international troops.
IS-K has claimed responsibility for a series of recent bombings, the worst of which was an attack last month on a mosque and religious school in the northern province of Kunduz that killed at least 33 people.
With reporting by AIP