Azerbaijan starts new attack on Armenians in disputed territory
- The ex-Soviet nation has launched ‘anti-terrorist operations’ in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave to ‘destroy military positions’
- Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital are under ‘mass artillery fire’, said Ruben Vardanyan, who briefly headed the local administration
Azerbaijan on Tuesday launched “anti-terrorist operations” in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, nearly three years after fighting a brief but brutal war with Armenia over the mountainous region that killed thousands.
The Azerbaijani army’s operation was “aimed at destroying Armenian military positions in the disputed territory and “restoring the constitutional order”, the defence ministry in Baku said on its website.
Armenians in the Nagorno-Karabakh capital, Stepanakert, are under “mass artillery fire”, Ruben Vardanyan, the former Moscow investment banker who briefly headed the local administration, said from the city in a message on Telegram.
Azerbaijan said its forces were not targeting civilian areas.
The defence ministry statement came just hours after security services said four police officers and two civilians were killed in mine blasts in Nagorno-Karabakh, with the authorities blaming separatists.
Nagorno-Karabakh is heavily mined, with hundreds of Azerbaijanis wounded or killed in the last 30 years by landmines laid by Armenian forces.
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