The neighboring former Soviet republics have lengthy been at odds over the territory — which is located inside the borders of Azerbaijan — and fought a conflict over it that completed in 1994.
Regardless of the battle ending with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, army skirmishes between the 2 sides should not unusual.
Whereas Armenia mentioned it was responding to missile assaults launched by its neighbor Sunday, Azerbaijan blamed Armenia for the clashes.
Armenia earlier claimed that its neighbor had focused civilians in peaceable areas, together with in Stepanakert, the area’s capital.
Artak Beglaryan, an official from the self-proclaimed Republic of Artsakh, a de facto impartial Armenian state not acknowledged internationally and which controls the area of Nagorno-Karabakh, mentioned in a tweet {that a} mom and baby had been killed.
Beglaryan additionally mentioned dozens of individuals had been wounded and huge infrastructural harm had been prompted, including: “Azerbaijan is deliberately concentrating on civilian objects.”
Nevertheless, Azerbaijan instructed Armenia was accountable for the most recent flare-up between the 2 international locations.
Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and head of the Overseas Coverage Affairs Division of the presidential administration, tweeted Sunday: “There are studies of useless and wounded amongst civilians and army servicemen. Intensive harm has been inflicted on many houses and civilian infrastructure.”
Accusing Armenia of “an act of aggression and use of power,” Hajiyev added that the “political-military management of Armenia bears full accountability.”
Not less than 5 folks in a single household had been killed because of artillery shelling by Armenian armed forces on Sunday, in line with Azerbaijan’s state information company APA, which cited the Azerbaijani prosecutor basic’s workplace.
To date, 19 civilians have been injured and hospitalized following the clashes, APA reported.
Not less than 14 civilians had been injured in villages alongside the border because of artillery and tank hearth from the breakaway Armenian enclave, in line with state media Azertac. CNN has been unable to independently confirm claims by both aspect.
“At the moment, the Azerbaijan Military is taking retaliatory actions and our troops absolutely management the operational state of affairs,” Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Protection mentioned in an announcement Sunday.
However Armenia’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs mentioned in an announcement: “We strongly condemn the aggression of the military-political management of Azerbaijan.”
“The army political management of Azerbaijan bears full accountability for the implications of their aggression,” the assertion added.
Combating between the 2 sides has been growing in current months.
In 2016, dozens of troopers from each international locations died throughout clashes. Two years earlier, then-UN Secretary-Normal Ban Ki-moon urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to “commit themselves to speedy de-escalation and persevering with dialogue” after studies of violence and casualties alongside the border.
The Nagorno-Karabakh area is internationally acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan however is ruled by a majority group of ethnic Armenians.
CNN’s Joshua Berlinger, Arzu Geybulla, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Gul Tuysuz and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
