Azerbaijan, Armenia accuse each other of ceasefire violations

BAKU, April 18. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said on Monday Armenia’s forces have violated ceasefire 115 times over the past 24 hours, while Yerevan said it has registered around 50 ceasefire violations on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh by Baku overnight.

Azerbaijan said its army positions located along the border between the two countries and in Nagorno-Karabakh have come under fire. Armenian forces also used 60-mm mortars and large-caliber machine guns, the ministry said.

Azerbaijan’s forces retaliated with 116 fire strikes on the Armenian positions.

Armenia’s defense ministry said "overnight the situation on the line of contact of the conflicting Karabakh and Azerbaijani forces remained the same." Azerbaijan opened fire from various types of small arms and also used 82-mm mortars in the northeastern direction, it said.

The Azerbaijani side also attempted to deploy a sabotage group consisting of 20 members to the eastern direction of the contact line. The Karabakh forces detected the group and repelled it, the ministry said.

The situation along the contact line of conflicting sides in Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan, deteriorated dramatically overnight to April 2 when fierce clashes began. The parties to the conflict accused each other of violating the truce. At a meeting of chiefs of General Staff of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow an agreement was reached on the ceasefire from noon local time (0800GMT) on April 5.