Officials in Baku have claimed that an Armenian rocket strike left 12 people dead and dozens more wounded amid ongoing clashes over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, as the region’s ombudsman says Azerbaijani shelling has injured two.
The Azerbaijani prosecutor general’s office also claimed on Saturday that 40 are wounded following the alleged Armenian attack
Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, shared footage on social media purporting to show the scene of the strike, saying that rescue efforts were still underway while insisting “Armenia's policy of state terror must be stopped.”
He added that “innocent civilians” were lost in the strike, which allegedly destroyed 20 houses.
An Armenian Defense Ministry spokeswoman has denied the allegations, however, insisting that “no fire was opened from the territory of the Republic of Armenia... in the direction of Azerbaijan.”
Officials in Nagorno-Karabakh – a disputed region formally part of Azerbaijan but long governed under an ethnic Armenian breakaway republic – also reported Azerbaijani shelling on Friday night, stating that two were wounded in the region’s capital of Stepanakert. Few other details were provided.
Earlier in the evening, the Armenian Defense Ministry said Azerbaijani drones were detected over the country’s airspace, noting that it would take “appropriate measures,” while a Foreign Ministry statement later alleged the UAVs hit targets near three different towns, destroying civilian structures but inflicting no casualties.
Renewed fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh flared up on September 27, with both sides claiming to be acting in self-defense as hostilities escalated into full-scale war. Though a Russian-brokered ceasefire was agreed earlier this month in an effort to calm tensions, fighting has nonetheless raged on, as the two countries continue to trade accusations and denials about strikes on each other’s territory and demands to surrender.
Also on rt.com Azerbaijan & Armenia at war: What you need to know about bloody conflict over long-disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh (MAP)Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!