Azerbaijan says four killed in recent Karabakh clashes

Four Azeri servicemen have been killed in recent weeks in clashes in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Azerbaijan's defense ministry said on Sunday, in the first report of casualties since a Russian-brokered ceasefire accord.

Separately, authorities in Armenia said six of their servicemen had been wounded in what they described as an Azeri military offensive but did not say when.

The Baku government said the clashes, which also left two Azeri servicemen wounded, had taken place in an area which fell under its control when the fighting ended on Nov. 10 and swathes of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh previously controlled by ethnic Armenians were handed over to Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, Yerevan insisted that Armenian forces had repelled attempted intrusions into territories supposed to remain under the control of the rebel province's government, namely the Hin Tagher and Khtsaberd villages.

"The provocations of Azerbaijan continued today in the direction of the villages of Mets Shen and Hin Shen in the Hadrut region," Armenia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russian peacekeepers deployed in the conflict area have reported no major clashes but said at the weekend there had been one incident of a ceasefire violation.



REUTERS