Authorities in Azerbaijan's rebel region of Nagorno-Karabakh say they have "serious grounds" to believe Azerbaijani "saboteurs" are responsible for killing an ethnic Armenian teenager whose body was found on July 15, RFE/RL reported.

Relatives of Smbat Tsakanian, 17, also believe he was kidnapped and killed by Azerbaijani commandos.

The prosecutor's office in Nagorno-Karabakh's main city of Xankandi (Stepanakert) said Tsakanian, missing since July 4, died of gunshot wounds.

Tsakanian and his family moved to Azerbaijan's Kalbacar District after it was captured by Armenian forces in 1993. 

He disappeared as troops from Nagorno-Karabakh were reportedly "neutralizing" an Azerbaijani "saboteur group" in the area that purportedly killed an Armenian officer and wounded a civilian.

Two Azerbaijani citizens were arrested during the operation.

Baku and Yerevan remain locked in hostilities over Nagorno-Karabakh, which was violently seized from Azerbaijan by Armenian-backed separatists in the early 1990s.