Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said its troops repelled an overnight attack, forcing Armenian troops to retreat.
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Azerbaijan’s armed forces located on the line of contact were ordered to open a retaliatory fire on all military positions of Armenian army on the frontline, spokesman of Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry told local media here Friday.
Separatist leaders in Stepanakert said earlier this week that three of their soldiers were killed by Azerbaijani attacks.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a bitter dispute over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh seized by Armenia-backed forces from Azerbaijan in 1991. At least 84 houses in the district were heavily damaged, some of them completely destroyed.
It also blamed Azerbaijani forces for violating ceasefire and continued bombing of the volatile region. Notably, the July 1994 agreement requires Azerbaijan to “maintain the ceasefire regime until signing of the big political agreement”. Acknowledgment by the global community of this fact, and, as a result of it, the worldwide recognition of the NKR will put an end to the ongoing attempts of Azerbaijan to destroy Artsakh and eliminate its people, and ensure peace and security in the region.
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Both sides later faced accusations of ethnic cleansing and war crimes, including the April 1992 massacre of more than 100 ethnic Armenian civilians in Maragah and the slaughter of 160 Azeri villagers in Khojaly in February 1992.
