Armenia, Azerbaijan accuse each other of breaking new ceasefire agreement hours after it came into effect.
- Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of violating the newly agreed truce.
- Defence ministry of the Nagorno-Karabakh region said the death toll among its military has risen to 673.
- Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed the ceasefire, which came into force at midnight on Sunday (20:00 GMT Saturday), following mediation by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group.
Sunday, October 18
07:50 GMT – Azerbaijan says Armenian forces violating ceasefire
Azerbaijan accused Armenian forces of violating the ceasefire over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region just hours after it was due to have taken effect at midnight.
“Armenian forces grossly violated another agreement,” the defence ministry in Baku said in a statement, accusing them of firing artillery and mortars in various directions and of launching early morning attacks along the front line.
Speaking from Ujar in Azerbaijan, Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid said: “The Azeris are pointing the finger at Armenia, saying that although Armenia has agreed to the ceasefire, it has tried to recapture lands it lost to Azerbaijan [during the fighting].”
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of violating new truce in Nagorno-Karabakh [File: AP]07:31 GMT – Nagorno-Karabakh says death toll among its military rises
The defence ministry of the Nagorno-Karabakh region said on Sunday it had recorded another 40 casualties among its military, pushing the military death toll to 673 since fighting with Azeri forces erupted on September 27.
The fighting has surged to its worst level since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were killed.
Relatives of people who were killed when a rocket hit their home mourn during their funeral in the city of Ganja, Azerbaijan [Umit Bektas/Reuters]07:00 GMT – Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of violating new truce in Nagorno-Karabakh
Shushan Stepanyan, a spokeswoman for Armenia’s defence ministry, said on Twitter that Azerbaijan fired artillery shells and rockets in the early hours of Sunday.
Speaking from Yerevan, Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith said that the truce was only a humanitarian truce designed for both sides to exchange bodies and prisoners of war.
“Armenia particularly needs this ceasefire to work because of the enormous domestic pressure its leadership is under,” said Smith explaining that pressure was linked due to the large number of people and land it had lost to Azerbaijan.
06:40 GMT – Armenia, Azerbaijan accuse each other of violating new ceasefire deal
Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each other of violating a new humanitarian ceasefire in fighting over Azerbaijan’s ethnic-Armenian-controlled enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Source
:
Al Jazeera and News agencies
