Azerbaijan's foreign ministry said on Sunday that one civilian has been killed and four others have been wounded in an Armenian missile attack on Ganja, as fighting intensified over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In statements posted on its website, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said Ganja, a city of more than 330,000 in the country's west, and several other civilian areas were under fire from rockets and shelling.
"Indiscriminate missile attacks are launched against Ganja, Füzuli, Tartar and Jabrayil cities of Azerbaijan from territory of Armenia. Ganja is the second biggest city of Azerbaijan. 500.000+ population," President Ilham Aliyev's aide Hikmet Hajiyev said in a tweet.
"Armenia as state and insane political-military leadership of Armenia remains source of imminent threat to regional peace, security. Azerbaijan will continue to defend its citizens," he added.
"Azerbaijan will destroy military targets in Armenia from which Armenia is firing on Azerbaijani cities," Hajiyev later said.
Armenia denied that it fired toward Azerbaijan, but the leader of the so-called "Artsakh Republic" in Nagorno-Karabakh said his forces had destroyed a military air base located in Ganja.
"Permanent military units located in the large cities of Azerbaijan from now on become the targets of the defense army," said Arayik Harutyunyan, the leader of the unrecognized proxy state set up by Armenia on illegally seized Azerbaijani territory.
Azerbaijani authorities said earlier on the same day that they took "retaliatory measures" after rocket fire from Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Stepanakert (Khankendi).
In Stepanakert, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) team on the ground reported several explosions.
Clashes between separatist Armenian militants and the Azerbaijani Armed Forces were engaged in fierce clashes on the previous day as fighting over the illegally occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region intensified, with Armenia reporting heavy losses and its leader saying it was facing a “historic threat.”
Yerevan's Ministry of Defense claimed that separatists in Karabakh repelled a “massive attack” by Azerbaijan, seven days after fighting erupted again in the decades-old dispute over the region.
Armenia also announced the deaths of 51 more separatist fighters, raising the number of fatalities on both sides above 240.
Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defense meanwhile said its armed forces had "captured new footholds" and President Aliyev previously announced that his forces took the village of Madagiz, a strategic hamlet within the firing range of an important northern road.
Aliyev said in a television interview the Armenians must withdraw from illegally occupied areas before the latest fighting can stop.
The new clashes erupted on Sept. 27 and international calls for a halt to hostilities have gone unanswered, with Armenia continuing its attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces, who are the rightful owners of the illegally occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, as recognized by all United Nations members and the U.N. itself.
Border clashes broke out last Sunday when Armenian forces targeted Azerbaijani civilian settlements and military positions, leading to casualties. Azerbaijan's parliament declared a state of war in some of its cities and regions following Armenia's border violations and attacks in Nagorno-Karabakh.
On Monday, Azerbaijan declared partial military mobilization amid the clashes.
Relations between the two former Soviet nations have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
Four U.N. Security Council (UNSC) and two U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions, as well as many international organizations, have demanded the withdrawal of the occupying forces.
