Deadly Fighting Reported On Armenian-Azeri Border

Two Azerbaijani soldiers were reportedly killed and five others wounded in heavy fighting that broke out at a section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border on Sunday.

The spokeswoman for Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Shushan Stepanian, said Azerbaijani forces shelled an Armenian army outpost in the northern Tavush province during a failed attempt to seize it. Stepanian said they suffered casualties while being repelled by Armenian soldiers stationed there.

“There are no casualties on the Armenian side,” she wrote on Facebook.

According to Stepanian, earlier in the afternoon, a military vehicle carrying Azerbaijani soldiers tried to cross into Tavush “for reasons unclear to us.” The soldiers fled and left the vehicle behind after warning shots fired from the Armenian side, said the official.

For its part, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that Armenian forces backed by artillery fire attacked its border posts in Azerbaijan’s western Tovuz district bordering Tavush. It said two Azerbaijani servicemen died and five others were wounded as a result.

Both conflicting parties had reported deadly ceasefire violations in the same border area early this year. In March, the Armenian military claimed to have thwarted two incursions attempted by troops from Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard Service. No major incidents were reported there in the following months.