Heavy fighting continued on Sunday, as the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh entered its second week. With both Armenia and Azerbaijan making opposing claims of escalations by the other side.
Baku reported that Azerbaijan's second-largest city, Ganja, was hit by Armenian missile strikes, while Yerevan insisted that Azeri forces shelled, Stepanakert, the major population centre in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenia and Azerbaijan carried out artillery and missile strikes throughout the day, with the intensity of the conflict showing no signs of winding down, according to media reports. Civilian areas were damaged as a result, both sides alleged.
Armenian armed forces launched a missile attack against the Azerbaijani city of Mingachevir late Sunday, Baku presidential aide Hikmet Hajiyev said. The industrial city plays a key role in the area, due to its reservoir and key power plant.
Armenia also hit the Khizi-Absheron region near Azerbaijan's capital Baku with mid-range missiles, according to Daly Sabah.
Separatist leader Harutyunyan seriously wounded
Arayik Harutyunyan, the separatist leader of the so-called "Artsakh Republic," has been seriously injured after Azerbaijani military hit the bunker he was hiding in, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's aide Hikmet Hajiyev said in a statement after Armenia's attacks against the country's second-largest city Ganja.
"First of all, Arayik Harutyunyan, you are not at the forefront of the battle. You were hiding in a bunker. But Azerbaijani Armed Forces hit you in the bunker you were hiding in. After a missile strike, Arayik Harutyunyan has been seriously wounded," he said during a press conference.
Harutyunyan is the so-called "president" of the proxy state set up by Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. The area under separatist control is not recognized as a sovereign nation by any country on earth including Armenia, which fears such a move will stoke a fully-fledged war with Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan liberates key Jabrayil province
Azerbaijani military has liberated the key province of Jabrayil in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense says in a statement citing local sources.
According to the statement, the villages of BÃ ¶yuk MercanlÄ ±, Maralyan and Ã...?eybey have also been freed from Armenian occupation.
Azerbaijan's second-biggest city, Ganja, came under heavy missile attacks by Armenian forces. In statements posted on its website, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said Ganja, a city in the country's west, and several other civilian areas were under fire from rockets and shelling.
"Indiscriminate missile attacks are launched against Ganja, Fuzuli, Tartar and Jabrayil cities of Azerbaijan from the 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.
Intense hostilities have been raging between Armenian and Azerbaijani troops for a week, marking one of the worst escalations in the history of the decades-long dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh was a designated autonomous region within Azerbaijan during the Soviet era. It claimed independence from Azerbaijan in 1991, about three months before the Soviet Union's collapse. A full-scale war that broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 1992 killing an estimated 30,000 people.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
