BAKU, April 28. /TASS/. One civilian was killed and seven more injured in the shelling of Azerbaijani settlements on the contact line by Armenian forces last night, the head of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry’s press service Khikmet Gadzhiyev said on Thursday.
"The Armenian side, flagrantly violating international humanitarian law, irresponsibly and purposefully shells Azerbaijani civilians. As a result of this, one civilian was killed and seven more were injured in Agdamsky district," Gadzhiyev said.
Overnight to April 28, "serious damage was inflicted on over 20 civilian facilities on the territory of Tertersky and Agdamsy districts" near the contact line," he added noting that Armenian forces used cluster bombs against civilians.
Gadzhiyev also commented on Yerevan’s accusations against Baku of inflicting damage on facilities and civilians near the contact line on the territory controlled by Armenia. "There are no civilians on these territories," he said.
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"Azerbaijan comprehensively informed and warned the international community that Armenia is preparing new provocations. Responsibility for the actions that Azerbaijani Armed Forces have to make to ensure security of civilians along the contact line, lies fully with Armenia," he concluded.
On Saturday, April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan.
On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time.
The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory that had been part of Azerbaijan before the Soviet Union break-up but was mainly populated by Armenians, broke out in the late 1980s.
In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories. Thousands left their homes on both sides in a conflict that killed 30,000. A truce was called between Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh republic on one side and Azerbaijan on the other in May 1994.