Armenia has fired a cluster rocket at the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. In vicinity of Yevlakh region, a rocket landed 10 meters away from the pipeline," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's aide Hikmet Hajivev said in a tweet late Tuesday as local media reported that a resident of the Goranboy district had been killed due to the explosion of the internationally banned bomb, Turkish daily Sabah reported.
"300+ Cluster bomblets ejected around. No damage to the pipeline. ANAMA is in operation," Hajiyev said, referring to the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action.
"Desperate attempts of Armenia to attack energy infrastructure," the aide concluded.
Meanwhile, local news outlet news.az reported that 144 exploded 9N235 bombs, as well as 300 unexploded M85 bombs, had been found.
"We would like to note that these bombs were included in the class of prohibited ammunition in 2008 in line with the Convention on Cluster Ammunition (CCM)," ANAMA was quoted as saying on the news site.
However, the Defense Ministry of Armenia rejected the Azeri report.
"Azerbaijan's reports of Armenian troops' attempt to strike the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline are outright lies," Armenian Defense Ministry press secretary Shushan Stepanyan wrote on her Facebook page, Russian news agency Tass reported. "We have repeatedly said that we do not view oil and gas infrastructure as our target." She added that "all areas from where attacks on Nagorno-Karabakh originate will be destroyed, regardless of their location."
The 1,700-km Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipelines, with the annual capacity of 50 million tonnes of oil, was launched in 2006. It delivers oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oilfield on the Caspian Sea shelf and is also used for transit of Turkmen, Kazakh and Russian oil.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Ã"¡avuÃ...ŸoÄŸlu visited Baku Tuesday and discussed with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev the ongoing fighting with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Following the meeting, Ã"¡avuÃ...ŸoÄŸlu gave a news conference and highlighted Turkey's support to Azerbaijan in its fight against Armenia.
"The world must side with the right one in the Nagorno-Karabakh tension, and the right one is Azerbaijan," the foreign minister said.
"The international community treats the occupier, Armenia, and the victim, Azerbaijan, the same. This approach does not lead to a solution to the conflict. It can no longer go on like this," he continued.
Ã"¡avuÃ...ŸoÄŸlu expressed that Turkey will continue its fight to show the world the truth and enable the international community to support the right causes, like the cause of Azerbaijan.
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.
