Armenia, Azerbaijan clash leaves 10 soldiers dead
Second deadly incident between two armies in three days
BAKU, Azerbaijan
Seven Armenian and three Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in clashes along the contact line between the two countries Sunday night, Azerbaijani authorities said Monday, as tensions in the fragile region escalated.
In a statement Monday, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that its soldiers Rauf Veliyev, Neman Ahmetzade and Zohrab Mustafazade were killed at separate locations along the contact line; the clashes occurred between Sunday night and early Monday morning.
The ministry said that seven Armenian soldiers were also killed in the clashes.
The Armenian news agency, Armenpress, quoting authorities from the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region also confirmed that the cease-fire had been violated 120 times between Sunday night and Monday morning.
On Friday, one Azerbaijani and four Armenian soldiers were killed in an exchange of fire.
The two former Soviet republics fought a six-year war over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh between 1988 and 1994.
On May 12, 1994, a cease-fire agreement was signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia after two decades of conflict over a territorial dispute over the region.
Despite having signed a cease-fire agreement, the two countries have not had any diplomatic relations.
In February 1988, the regional parliament in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan, which is largely populated by ethnic Armenians, voted to declare its independence from Azerbaijan.
Armenian parliament voted to recognize the independence, which forced the evacuation of over 200,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis from Armenia. Thousands of Azerbaijani civilians lost their lives in the resulting conflict.
