Civilian death toll in Armenian attacks reaches 41

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

Armenia continues shelling Azerbaijan’s densely populated areas using heavy artillery.

Forty one civilians have been killed and 207 others have been injured since the outbreak of large-scale hostilities on September 27, after Armenia launched another attack along the line of contact, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported on October 11.

Among the civilians are three children. 

As a result of the shelling of civilian infrastructure facilities by the occupying country's armed forces, 1,185 houses and 57 multi-apartment residential buildings, as well as 148 civilian facilities were severely damaged.

Vehicles belonging to civilians became unserviceable, and numerous small and large horned animals and haystacks were destroyed as well.

Armenian armed forces launched a large-scale operation in the front-line zone on September 27 at 6 am, shelling the positions of the Azerbaijani army from large-calibre weapons, mortars, and artillery installations of various calibres. 

On October 4, Armenia launched missile attack on Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest populated city. There were also attacks on Mingachevir city that has a hydroelectric power station as well as on Khizi and Abheron region on the same day. On October 6, Armenia fired a forbidden cluster missile at Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline in Yevlakh. The bomb landed 10 meters away from the pipeline. Over 300 cluster bomblets ejected around as a result of the attack. On October 11, Ganja city came under missile attack of Armenia.At least nine civilians were killed and 33 more were injured in Armenia's overnight missile attack in Ganja. Armenia also attacked Azerbaijan's Jabrayil and Hadrut regions on October 10.

It should be noted that the attack on Ganja comes hours after the humanitarian ceasefire signed between Azerbaijani and Armenian Foreign Ministers with Russia's mediation on October 10. 

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.