Nine Azerbaijani troops were killed yesterday while repelling an Armenian attack in Tartar District, northeast of the rebel region of Nagorno-Karabakh, APA reported. 

An Armenian sabotage and reconnaissance group was forced to retreat, suffering heavy casualties, the Baku-based news agency said, without providing the source of the information. It published the names of the dead soldiers.

The Defense Ministry said on its website two of its servicemen were killed in the past 24 hours. Vaqif Dargahli, a spokesman for the ministry, refrained comment when reached by phone. 

Authorities in Azerbaijan's rebel region of Nagorno-Karabakh said two Armenian troops were also killed in the fighting.

If confirmed, this will be the deadliest single fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces since a ceasefire was agreed 20 years ago.

Armenians seized nearly one-fifth of Azerbaijan's internationally-recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, in a war after the Soviet breakup in 1991.

As many as 20 Azerbaijanis were killed and over a million displaced before the ceasefire was brokered in May 1994.

Azerbaijan says it reserves the right to use force to regain control of its territory should peace efforts mediated by the US, Russia and France fail. 

Bakudaily.az