(RFE/RL) — Azerbaijani and Armenian forces exchanged fire for several hours along a section of their border as tensions continue to simmer between the two countries after last year’s war over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The defense ministries of both countries accused the other side of provoking the flareup on the evening of July 19 along Armenia’s Yeraskh section of the border with Azerbaijan’s Naxcivan exclave, which is sandwiched between Armenia and Iran.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry claimed that Armenian forces opened fire using weapons of various calibers at Azerbaijani positions in the Sadarak district of Naxcivan region. It said Azerbaijani forces fired back in retaliation.
Armenia’s Defense Ministry claimed Azerbaijani forces first fired on Armenian positions in the Yeraskh section, saying the “entire responsibility” for the skirmish fell on Azerbaijan.
There were no initial reports of casualties on either side.
The skirmish comes five days after another shootout along the same section of the border left one Armenian solder dead and at least one Azerbaijani soldier wounded.
Long-running tensions between the two South Caucasus nations escalated during last year’s war over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but had been controlled by ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s.
Some 6,000 people were killed in six weeks of fighting that ended in a Moscow-brokered cease-fire deal.
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