Armenia and Azerbaijan battle over separatist region

Armenia says Karabakh forces quit town as U.S.-backed ceasefire appears to fail

YEREVAN/BAKU (Reuters) - Armenia acknowledged overnight that Nagorno-Karabakh forces had withdrawn from a strategic town between the enclave and the Iranian border, an apparent military gain for Azerbaijan as a new U.S.-brokered ceasefire failed to end a month of fighting...

Localised battles were taking place along several parts of the front line on Tuesday morning, the Nagorno-Karabakh defence ministry said in a statement. Azerbaijan’s defence ministry described fighting concentrated in three frontline areas...

Russia FM: 2,000 Mideast militants fight in Nagorno-Karabakh

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Russia’s top diplomat said Tuesday that about 2,000 fighters from the Middle East have joined the fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, the worst outbreak of hostilities in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in more than a quarter-century.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement came as the warring parties traded accusations over new attacks in the region.

“We are certainly worried about the internationalization of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the involvement of militants from the Middle East,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Russian business daily Kommersant. “We have repeatedly asked foreign players to use their potential to stop the transfer of militants, whose number in the conflict zone is approaching 2,000...”

The cease-fire deal triggered outrage overnight in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, where angry protesters broke into government buildings after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the agreement. They ransacked Pashinyan’s office and broke windows and furniture in government buildings.

Russia said Monday that one of its military helicopters was shot down in Armenia, near the border with Azerbaijan, killing two servicemen.
The incident occurred near the border with the Azerbaijan exclave of Nakhchivan.

Armenian troops killed in Azerbaijan border clash

A number of Armenian soldiers have been killed and captured in a flare-up of violence on the border with Azerbaijan, Armenian officials say.

Armenia said some of its troops had been killed and two combat positions had been lost, while Azerbaijan said two of its soldiers were injured.

Later on Tuesday, both sides reportedly agreed to a Russian-brokered ceasefire...

With Russia distracted, Azerbaijan escalates in Karabakh

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Azerbaijan has increasingly tested the will and capacity of the Russian peacekeeping mission deployed to the residual territory remaining under Armenian control at the end of the 2020 Karabakh war.

In early March, Azerbaijani forces were observed circling close to Armenian villages with loudspeakers urging the inhabitants to evacuate, and reports of increased ceasefire violations soon followed. On 8 March, a crucial pipeline supplying gas to the Karabakh Armenian population was cut off on Azerbaijani-held territory, leaving residents without heat for two weeks. Although the pipeline was repaired, it was reportedly cut off again, then restored.

Azerbaijani forces then advanced into the area which is ostensibly under Russian peacekeeper control, forcing the evacuation of one Armenian village, taking strategic heights overseeing others, and reportedly using drone strikes to kill three local Armenian servicemen and wound a further 15...