Two Armenian soldiers were killed and three Azerbaijani service personnel were wounded early on Friday in renewed clashes between the rival nations.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that three of its personnel were wounded in attacks in the town of Kalbajar near its border with Armenia.
Two soldiers were wounded when Armenian armed forces launched a drone strike on Azerbaijani trenches near the town of Kelbecer from the Vardenis (Basarkechar) province of eastern Armenia, the ministry said.
Similarly, Armenia said two of its soldiers were killed and one was wounded when Azerbaijan shelled its positions near the town of Sotk.
Earlier, the ministry reported clashes with Armenian forces in the same area, where one Muhammed Tağıyev was injured and hospitalized in a military facility.
“Countermeasures were deployed,” the ministry informed.
It accused Yerevan of “purposefully raising the tensions” in the region by targeting its military positions with arms, mortars, shelling and kamikaze drones.
“Armenia continues sending additional military equipment and personnel to the region,” the ministry said. “They’re trying to create misconceptions in the international arena through disinformation in order to prepare the ground for further provocation.”
"We inform you that the military and political leadership of this country (Armenia) bears all the responsibility for the provocation caused by Armenia,” it added.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, too, condemned Armenian attacks, saying, “These kinds of acts by Armenia aimed at directing attention from political tension and the social situation at home, and deceiving the international community must be absolutely rejected and condemned by the international community.”
The exchange of fire marks another flare-up in tensions between the South Caucasus neighbors, which have been steadily rising since last December and left half a dozen people dead on both sides.
Baku has been accused of blocking the Lachin corridor, the only land route connecting Azerbaijan's Karabakh region to Armenia.
The pair have been locked in a deadly dispute over the Karabakh enclave – internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but illegally occupied by Armenia for over three decades, which was recently liberated by Azerbaijan – since the 1980s and fought two wars over the territory.
In 2020, Azerbaijan liberated several cities, villages and settlements from illegal Armenian occupation during 44 days of clashes. The war ended with a Russia-brokered peace agreement.
Azerbaijan said it had set up checkpoints on the short mountainous road over security reasons, citing the transfer of weapons and ammunition to its region, while Yerevan has demanded the U.N. intervene to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
The Lachin corridor is not meant to block access for civilians and Baku said earlier this week that it sent an aid convoy to its Karabakh region.
