Azerbaijan has sent troops backed by artillery attacks into Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh, warning that its operation would not stop until Armenian forces surrender.
The attacks on Tuesday raised the threat of a new war in the ethnic Armenian region of Azerbaijan, which has been a flashpoint since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory but part of it is run by separatist Armenian authorities who have said the area, with a population of about 120,000, is their ancestral homeland.
Baku launched what it has called an “anti-terrorist operation” hours after four soldiers and two civilians were killed by landmines that it claimed were planted by Armenian saboteurs.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said it was intended to “disarm and secure the withdrawal of formations of Armenia’s armed forces from our territories, [and] neutralise their military infrastructure”.
Azerbaijani forces on Tuesday seized more than 60 military posts and destroyed up to 20 military vehicles with other hardware, the ministry said in a statement.
Armenia’s foreign ministry condemned the attacks and said Azerbaijan had “unleashed another large-scale aggression against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh, aiming to complete its policy of ethnic cleansing”.
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