3 Armenian soldiers killed in fresh clashes in Karabakh

Three ethnic Armenian soldiers have been killed in clashes with Azerbaijani forces on the volatile front line in Karabakh.

Rebel authorities in Karabakh said on Saturday that Azerbaijani forces had shelled Karabakh army positions using anti-tank grenade launchers a day earlier.

“Three servicemen of the Karabakh army, all aged 20, were killed as a result,” said a Karabakh defense ministry statement.

Armenian officials also accused the Azerbaijani side of violating a ceasefire agreement that has been in place in the region for more than a year.

Russia intervened in April last year after some 110 people were killed from the two sides in what has been described as one of the worst confrontations over Karabakh in decades.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are technically at war over Nagorny Karabakh, an Azerbaijani territory that was seized by Armenian separatists in a bloody war in the 1990s.

Some 30,000 people were killed in the conflict, which ended with a fragile truce in 1994. The two sides have yet to reach a permanent peace agreement on the issue as clashes have continued over the years, claiming more lives from both sides.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly warned that it would take back Karabakh by force, but Armenia, which supports the rebels, says it would crush any military intervention by Baku.

Military officials in Azerbaijan have yet to comment on the clashes on Friday and what caused the incident.

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