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Large-scale fighting has erupted between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. (Image: Reuters/Representative)
Blasts were reported from the Armenian separatist stronghold of Stepanakert in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry on Tuesday announced that it has begun anti-terrorism operations in Armenia-controlled parts of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“Anti-terrorist operations in the region of a local character have begun,” Baku’s defence ministry said, according to news agency AFP. The Azeri defence ministry said that it is using “high-precision weapons on the front line and in depth” as part of the operations.
The AFP also said that blasts were heard from the separatist stronghold of Stepanakert in Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but largely populated by ethnic Armenians.
The attacks come shortly after Baku claimed that four Azerbaijani police officers and two civilians were killed in mine blasts in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The eastern European neighbours have been fighting each other for decades over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region and have fought two wars in the 1990s and in 2020.
There were fears that a fresh series of fightings may erupt between the neighbouring nations as Armenia accused Azerbaijan of increasing presence of troops and blocked its only land link to Armenian-majority Karabakh.
Azerbaijan said the civilians died due to a blast by a mine placed by Armenian “sabotage groups” in a statement released by the defence ministry.
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