Azerbaijan, Armenia report more deaths as tensions escalate

Seven Armenian soldiers also died and "many more" were injured, the Defense Ministry in Baku said Monday on its website. 

There were no Armenian casualties, the News.am news website reported, citing the Nagorno-Karabakh "defense army". More than 10 Azeri troops were killed or injured, it said.

Armenians captured Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan in a war after the 1991 Soviet that killed 30,000 people and displaced more than a million. While major hostilities ended with a Russia-brokered cease-fire in 1994, no peace accord has been signed.

A resumption of large-scale hostilities would threaten energy infrastructure around Azerbaijan, the former Soviet Union’s third-biggest oil producer and a destination for more than $50 billion of investments from BP Plc and its partners since 1994.

The latest reports of deaths follow confirmed killings last week of one Azerbaijani and four Armenian soldiers. As tensions escalated, the two sides accused each other of hundreds of cease-fire violations involving artillery and high-caliber weapons.

 

(Bloomberg)