Supported ground forces against Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan fighters with transport, helicopter and improvised L-39 strikes; Uzbekistan’s air force also struck.

Between 30 July and 27 September 1999 armed fighters of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan crossed from Tajikistan into Batken, took hostages, among them Japanese geologists who were released after a ransom, and forced the young Kyrgyz army into its first real fighting. The government used artillery and air strikes. What the air force had to strike with is the telling part: according to eyewitnesses cited by TechInformPress, six Mi-8s, two L-39 trainers and several An-12s and An-26s took part, and the bombing was done by L-39s because Kyrgyzstan had no dedicated combat aircraft left. Uzbek Su-24s were brought in against the militants. The episode exposed the gap between the hundreds of airframes inherited in 1992 and the handful that could fly, and helped push Bishkek towards the Russian-led security framework that later produced the Kant base.

حصيلة The militants withdrew by late September 1999.

The aircraft numbers rest on eyewitness accounts reported by one Russian specialist publication and are UNVERIFIED by an official source; sortie counts and results are not published.

الطيران من أجل

Kyrgyz Air Force

أين

Batken Region, southern Kyrgyzstan

بجانب

Uzbekistan and Russia

ضد

Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan

الطائرات

Mi-8, L-39, An-12, An-26

خسائر

Wikipedia gives 32 Kyrgyz civilians and soldiers killed in the conflict as a whole; no air force losses were confirmed.

مصادر

TechInformPress (Sergey Drozdov) · ويكيبيديا الإنجليزية

No Kyrgyz military aviation role was reported in the sources checked.

Fighting broke out on 28 April 2021 over a water supply facility near Kök-Tash, where the two countries’ unmarked border runs through irrigated villages. In three days, by each government’s own figures, 36 people died in Kyrgyzstan and 19 in Tajikistan, and more than 33,000 people were evacuated from Batken. Each side accused the other of starting the fighting and of breaking ceasefires. The air dimension came from the Tajik side: a Carnegie Moscow Center commentary of 4 May 2021, relying on video circulating on social media, reported Tajik Mi-24 helicopters firing unguided S-5 rockets. Tajikistan did not confirm this in the sources checked. No use of Kyrgyz aircraft was reported. The clash showed Kyrgyzstan how exposed Batken was, and its response over the following months was not a new air force but armed drones for the border service.

حصيلة Ceasefire on 1 May 2021; troops withdrawn by 3 May.

The Tajik Mi-24 claim rests on one analytical commentary based on video, as cited by Wikipedia; casualty figures are each government’s own and are not independently verified.

الطيران من أجل

Kyrgyz Armed Forces (no air force role reported)

أين

Batken Region and Tajikistan’s Sughd Region

بجانب

لا يوجد سلاح جوي حليف

ضد

Tajikistan

طلعات جوية

—لم يتم الإبلاغ عن أي شيء.

خسائر

Kyrgyzstan reported 36 dead; Tajikistan reported 19 by 4 May 2021 (after first giving 9 servicemen). More than 33,000 Kyrgyz civilians were evacuated.

مصادر

ويكيبيديا الإنجليزية

Armed drones were used on the Kyrgyz side, according to Human Rights Watch; the TB2s belong to the border service, not the air force.

Shelling began on 14 September 2022 and grew into four days of fighting with tanks, artillery and, for the first time in the region, armed drones. Kyrgyzstan called it an act of aggression by Tajikistan; Tajikistan said Kyrgyzstan had instigated it. Human Rights Watch, after interviewing witnesses on both sides, reported armed drones on the Kyrgyz side and found that around 5 p.m. on 16 September Kyrgyz forces used a laser-guided bomb in the central square of Ovchi Kal’acha, killing at least ten civilians and wounding 13 minutes after Tajik forces arrived; it called the attack disproportionate and apparently indiscriminate, and also documented attacks by Tajik forces on civilians in Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan said a Kyrgyz Bayraktar TB2 strike destroyed a tank and killed 15 civilians at a mosque, as reported by Reuters. Kyrgyzstan gave HRW no information on its own forces’ attacks. The drones were those delivered to the border service in December 2021.

حصيلة Ceasefire on 16 September; protocol signed 20 September 2022; border agreement reached in February–March 2025.

Casualty totals differ widely by source and are given as each side’s claim; the drone type used at Ovchi Kal’acha was not named by HRW.

الطيران من أجل

Kyrgyz Armed Forces and the border service of the State Committee for National Security

أين

Batken Region and Tajikistan’s Sughd Region

بجانب

لا يوجد سلاح جوي حليف

ضد

Tajikistan

الطائرات

Bayraktar TB2 (border service, per Tajik statements)

خسائر

Kyrgyz officials: at least 59 dead by 18 September (The Diplomat); Wikipedia’s infobox gives 63. Tajik authorities: 41 dead, without a list; RFE/RL’s Radio Ozodi named 83. Human Rights Watch documented 37 civilians killed on both sides and said the total may reach 51. About 136,000 people were displaced in Kyrgyzstan.

مصادر

Human Rights Watch · ويكيبيديا الإنجليزية · The Diplomat · Radio Ozodi (RFE/RL) · DefenceTurk · ويكيبيديا الإنجليزية · ويكيبيديا الإنجليزية