BAKU, September 30. /TASS/. One civilian died and another three suffered wounds in the artillery shelling of the Azerbaijani town of Horadiz, located in the Fizuli district adjacent to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Wednesday.
"An artillery shell fired by the Armenian forces fell near a petrol station in the town of Horadis in the Fizuli district. As a result, Murad Rustamov, a resident of the town, was killed and another three people suffered wounds. The petrol station sustained serious damage," the statement reads.
A criminal case has been launched over the incident.
Tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia escalated on September 27. Fighting is underway in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku and Yerevan have introduced martial law and mobilization. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, including civilian casualties. Baku claims to have taken control of several villages and strategic heights in Nagorno-Karabakh. Yerevan reports shelling of its territory.
The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up, but primarily populated by ethnic Armenians, broke out in February 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1992-1994, tensions boiled over and exploded into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and seven adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them. Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been ongoing since 1992 under the OSCE Minsk Group, led by its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States.