Azerbaijan, Armenia claim conflicting successes in Nagorno-Karabakh battles

Azerbaijan and Armenia both claimed military victories in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh overnight on Thursday, saying they had repelled attacks by the other and destroyed enemy hardware.

The Azeri Defence Ministry said its troops had neutralised a large number of enemy troops and equipment including two SU-25 ground attack aircraft and three T-72 tanks,

A large number of enemy forces, 2 – Su-25 jets, 3 – T-72 tanks, 1 – IFV, 2 – "Smerch" and 1 – BM-21 "Grad" MLRS, 10 different types of cannons, 2 – "Gvozdika" self-propelled howitzers, 1 – "Osa" anti-aircraft missile system, 1 – P-18 radar station, 4 – auto vehicles were wrecked.

— Azerbaijan MOD (@wwwmodgovaz) October 30, 2020

The ministry said four districts in northern Nagorno-Karabakh and just north of the enclave came under Armenian artillery fire early on Friday morning.

Armenia said a “large quantity” of enemy munitions and manpower were destroyed overnight. Two military offensives by Azerbaijan had been thwarted, Armenian Defence Ministry spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said.

Reconnoitering & fire engagement ops were ongoing over the night of Oct 29-30 in the deployed locations of the enemy forces with large quantity of enemy munitions & manpower destroyed. The enemy forces tried to launch a new attack in the SE direction thwarted by the army units1/2

— Shushan Stepanyan (@ShStepanyan) October 30, 2020

A month of fighting between Armenian separatists and the Azeri military, which is backed by Turkey, represents the latest flare-up in a decades-long dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Russia and the United States have brokered a total of three ceasefires to help end the clashes, which have reportedly left more than 1,200 people dead. The truces have failed and the battles threaten to spread beyond the de facto independent state, which is located within Azerbaijan’s borders but controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan said on Thursday that the Azeri military was advancing towards the town of Shusha, Agence France Presse reported. Shusha is an historic cultural centre of the region.

“The enemy’s main goal is to capture Shushi … whoever controls Shushi controls Artsakh,” he said, using the Armenian names for the town and the enclave as a whole, respectively.

Azerbaijan has launched some of its heaviest strikes yet, Karabakh’s rights ombudsman Artak Beglaryan told AFP on Thursday.

“Azerbaijan struck Stepanakert (Karabakh’s capital) for several hours, tens of missiles hit the city,” he said. “Civilians were wounded as a result of the strike, the heaviest during the recent fighting.”

President Ilham Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, Hikmet Hajiyev, said that Azerbaijan had handed Armenia the bodies of 30 troops killed in the fighting, according to AFP.

“Armenia has failed to show good will “, but thanks to Russian mediation has “agreed to open a humanitarian corridor” for the evacuation of Azeri soldiers’ bodies from battlefields”, Hajiyev told journalists.

Armenian Defence Ministry spokesperson Stepanyan confirmed the handover mediated by Russia and the Red Cross, AFP said. She said that the Armenian side was also ready to return the bodies of slain Azeri soldiers.

Source: ahvalnews.com

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