Three Azerbaijani troops have been killed in the past 24 hours in fighting with the separatist region of Nagorno—Karabakh, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said on Monday.
Vagif Dargyakhly, the Ministry’s spokesman, told The Associated Press that the rebels were shelling Azerbaijian’s positions and front-line villages despite a cease-fire his government unilaterally announced. He said the Karabakh militia used large-calibre mortar and grenade launchers overnight.
Nagorno—Karabakh has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military since a war ended in 1994 with no resolution of the region’s status. Fighting flared up there over the weekend, with a boy and at least 30 troops killed on both sides on Saturday, the worst fighting since the end of a full-scale war in 1994.
Artsrun Ovannisian, spokesman for the Armenian Defence Ministry, said on Monday the Karabakh militia advanced overnight, “liberating new positions.”
Self-proclaimed officials in Karabakh said fighting intensified in the morning in the southeast and northeast with the Azerbaijani troops using Grad multiple grenade launchers.
