Armenia shells Azerbaijani civilians, residential buildings in border region

By Azernews

By Akbar Mammadov

Armenian armed forces have shelled, using large-caliber machine guns and sniper rifles, Abbasbeyli village in the Gazakh district, Azerbaijan’s State Border Service reported on May 13.

Starting at 12:00 on May 13, civilians as well as military and civilian vehicles moving along this direction have also been intensively shelled by Armenian armed units deployed near the village of Berkaber of the Ijevan region of Armenia.

As a result of Armenian armed forces’ shelling, the roofs of several houses were damaged.

Azerbaijan’s State Border Service has thwarted the advisory provocation, suppressing the combat positions of Armenian armed forces by the return fire.

It should be noted that the Azerbaijani armed forces repelled the Armenian armed forces’ attack using 82-mm mortars on April 29.

Earlier, on April 3, Armenian armed forces, deployed in near the village of Aygeovit, Ijevan region of Armenia, shelled  Bala Jafarli village in the Gazakh district, targeting Civilians and  the border-combat points, as well as military and civilian vehicles.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France has been mediating the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict since the signing of the volatile cease-fire agreement in 1994. The Minsk Group’s efforts have resulted in no progress and to this date, Armenia has failed to abide by the UN Security Council resolutions (822, 853, 874 and 884) that demand the withdrawal of Armenian military forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.