Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of nine shelling attacks on border

The positions of the Armenian troops on the border with Azerbaijan were shelled, including from a grenade launcher, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) of Armenia reports today. Since the beginning of the conflict escalation, 50 buildings in the Tavush Region had been damaged, and the authorities have already launched restoration of 12 of them, the regional governor reports.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the situation on the border of the Tovuz District of Azerbaijan and the Tavush Region of Armenia escalated on July 12. The Azerbaijani side announced the death of 11 of its soldiers and one civilian, and wounding of four soldiers. Given the four killed and 20 wounded people on the Armenian side, the count of victims since the start of the aggravation on the border made 40 killed and wounded people.

Today, Shushan Stepanyan, the press secretary for the Armenian MoD, has reported that over the night, the Azerbaijani troops nine times violated the ceasefire regime on the border with Armenia by 137 shots at the Armenian positions.

In particular, according to Shushan Stepanyan, the Azerbaijani side twice shelled the Armenian military strongholds deployed near the village of Chambarak. According to the Armenian MoD, the Azerbaijani troops used an AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher.

All buildings in the Tavush Region damaged in the shelling attacks are to be restored by the end of the year, announces regional governor Hayk Chobanyan. "According to our calculations, at the moment, 50 buildings have been damaged more or less severely. The restoration of 12 of them has already been started," Hayk Chobanyan said. The regional governor has not specified whether he spoke of residential houses, administrative buildings, or farm outbuildings.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 20, 2020 at 11:15 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.