19 February 2010, 23:20
Azerbaijan reports casualties of skirmish in Karabakh conflict zone
Three soldiers of the Azerbaijani Army were lost and one more wounded as a result of the skirmishes that burst out in the contact line of the Karabakh conflict zone. This was reported on February 18 by Eldar Sabirogly, head of the press service of Ministry of Defence of Azerbaijan. The Karabakh party refutes the data about the victims and the incident as such.
According to Mr Sabirogly, on February 18, the armed forces of Armenia violated the ceasefire regime in different directions of the frontline and provoked skirmishes. "Having received a repulse, the opponents receded, and their losses were not less than ours," he said.
The information about the armed incident on the frontline was confirmed by Nadzhmeddin Sadykhov, Chief of Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, in his interview to the Baku TV Channel ANS. According to his story, activation of the Armenian party was caused by the military exercises conducted by the Azerbaijani Army. He has noted that "adequate measures were taken by the Azerbaijani party."
Soldiers were killed by bullets of Armenian snipers in the territories of the Agdam, Terter and Geranboy District, which Azerbaijan believes as occupied, the Azerbaijani ATV Channel reported and named the casualties: soldiers Khayal Faradzhev, Sakhil Mamedov and Davud Rustamov.
"The data about the skirmish in the contact line of the armed forces of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan has nothing to do with reality," the "Panorama.am" quotes Senor Asratyan, press secretary of the Army of the Defence of Nagorno-Karabakh.
As to the casualties, as the "NEWS.am" reports, Mr Asratyan advised his Azerbaijani colleagues to search the roots of the events "in the low moral condition of their armed forces."