Azerbaijan carried out strikes on the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area on Tuesday because it introduced the launch of an “anti-terror” operation, a transfer that threatens to set off one other conflict within the area.
The nation’s Protection Ministry said it was utilizing “high-precision weapons” to “incapacitate” Armenian-backed forces and goal Armenian army positions in a push to power out “formations of Armenia’s armed forces.”
Footage purportedly filmed in Stepanakert, the capital of Karabakh, which is named Khankendi by Azerbaijan, captured the sounds of loud shelling and artillery hearth.
“At this second, the capital Stepanakert and different cities and villages are beneath intensive hearth,” an Armenia-based separatist group warned on social media, calling it a “large-scale army offensive.”
Officers in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, stated civilians have been free to go away the realm through humanitarian corridors and insisted that “the civilian inhabitants and civilian infrastructure are usually not targets.”
Azerbaijan and Armenia have feuded for many years over Karabakh, which is internationally acknowledged as a part of Azerbaijan however has a predominantly ethnic Armenian inhabitants.
A bloody 2020 conflict between the 2 former Soviet rivals ended with Azerbaijan recapturing land of historic significance to Armenians. A Russian-brokered ceasefire deal to finish that conflict did little to ease tensions within the area, with the 2 sides persevering with to hurl allegations and periodic stories of shelling.
Armenia has stated it doesn’t have any armed forces in Karabakh, and on Tuesday stated the “state of affairs on the borders of the Republic of #Armenia is comparatively steady.”
