Conflict Erupts Between Azerbaijani and Armenian Forces

• Conflict Erupts Between Azerbaijani and Armenian Forces
  by Associated Press in Baku, http://www.theguardian.com/international  
  More than 30 people killed in clashes over separatist enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the Caucasus
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  At least 30 soldiers and a boy were reported killed as heavy fighting erupted between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The fighting was one of the worst outbreaks since the end of a full-scale war over the region in 1994. 
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  Since 1994, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh – officially part of Azerbaijan – has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military. Armenian forces also occupy several areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh proper. The sides are separated by a demilitarised buffer zone, but small clashes have broken out frequently.
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  Each side blamed the other for Saturday’s escalation. In a statement, Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that 12 of its soldiers “became shahids” – Muslim martyrs – and that one of its helicopters had been shot down. The statement also claimed that more than 100 Armenian soldiers had been killed or wounded and that six tanks and 15 artillery positions had been destroyed.
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  The Armenian president, Serzh Sargsyan, told his national security council that 18 Armenian soldiers had been killed and 35 wounded. Armenia had earlier claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on Azerbaijani forces, without giving figures. A statement from the Nagorno-Karabakh defence ministry claimed more than 200 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, but there was no corroboration for that figure.
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  “This is the most wide-scale military action that Azerbaijan has tried to carry out since the establishment of the 1994 ceasefire regime,” Sargsyan said.
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