TLTP
BAKU
Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused each other of shelling military positions and villages, breaking a day of ceasefire in border clashes between the long-feuding former Soviet republics.
The Azerbaijan defence ministry said one of its soldiers died, while Armenia’s defence ministry said a civilian was wounded in Chinari village from an Azeri drone attack.
Prior to that, 15 soldiers from both sides and one civilian had died since Sunday in the flareup between nations who fought a 1990s war over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh region.
In a blizzard of rhetoric on both sides, Azerbaijan warned Armenia it might attack the Metsamor nuclear power station if its Mingechavir reservoir or other strategic outlets were hit.
The neighbours have long been in conflict over Azerbaijan’s breakaway, mainly ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh. But the latest flareups are around the Tavush region in northeast Armenia, some 300km (190 miles) from the enclave.
“With no gain in the battlefield, the Azerbaijani military units began shelling the villages … deliberately targeting the civilian infrastructures and the population,” Armenia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
Armenia’s defence ministry accused the Azerbaijan army of moving positions while using villagers as “human shields”.
Azerbaijan denied targeting civilians and made the same accusation against Armenia of shelling villages.
