Azerbaijan breaches Karabakh truce: casualties reported

Azerbaijan continues breaching the ceasefire on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh Line of Contact using weapons of various calibers, simultaneously making sabotage attempts with help of the security forces, the press office of Armenia’s defense ministry reported.

According to the source, Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces breached the ceasefire on the Line of Contact over 80 times on March 6, firing almost 4500 shots from 60mm and 80mm mortars, Istiglal sniper rifles, AGS-17 grenade launchers, and other large-caliber weapons.

In addition, in the north of the frontline (Shahumyan), the adversary used Zik-23-2 weapons. To destroy the source of the hostile action, the frontline subdivisions of the Karabakh Armed Forces took retaliatory measures and destroyed Zik-23-3 and liquidated, at least, three Azerbaijani militaries. According to the latest confirmed data, another four security officers were killed in the clashes.

The Armenian party suffered no casualties. The frontline subdivisions of the Karabakh Defense Army control over the situation along the Line of Contact fulfilling their combat tasks, the source reports.

Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, in turn, reports a sabotage attempt by a sabotage–reconnaissance group of the Armenian Armed Forces on the Line of Contact in the area of Agdere-Terter. “After preventive measures and the following intensive fire at the enemy, the occupants were forced to retreat suffering losses, abandoning weapons and ammunition. Our sergeant Dayanat Mekhman Zakhidov received a light wound in the right arm,” the ministry said.

However, Spokesperson of the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan disclaimed the reports of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. Since the beginning of the year, the conflicting parties keep blaming each other for ceasefire breaches and casualties.1`