"From today on, we will carry out even more devastating strikes against the enemy,” Hasanov told soldiers in a newly-built military compound, according to the ministry website.

The minister said the strikes will continue until Armenians leave the territory they have been occupying for more than two decades.

At least three Armenian soldiers were killed in an Azerbaijani strike near the line of contact, the Defense Ministry in Baku said yesterday.

Armenia seized nearly one-fifth of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, in a war after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

While major hostilities ended with a cease-fire in 1994, no peace agreement has been signed.

Armenia continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territory despite four UN Security Council resolutions calling for immediate and unconditional withdrawal.