BAKU, September 23. /TASS/. Staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) took part in the evacuation of nine wounded Armenian soldiers from Khojavend to Khankendi (Stepanakert), communications director at the ICRC’s Baku office Ilakha Guseinova told TASS.
"Nine seriously wounded Armenian soldiers were evacuated from a Khojavend hospital to a hospital in Khankendi in ICRC vehicles," she said.
Guseinova pointed out that the hospital had been provided with drugs. According to her, the ICRC is ready to provide humanitarian assistance to the population as soon as it obtains the consent of the authorities and receives security guarantees. Guseinova did not rule out that the organization could increase the number of personnel on the ground.
Khikment Gadzhiyev, an aide to the Azerbaijani president, said earlier that Baku was ready to provide medical treatment to wounded Armenian service members or assist them through the ICRC. He added that Azerbaijan would welcome additional staff members from the ICRC’s Geneva office.
On September 19, tensions flared up again in Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku announced it was launching what it described as "local anti-terrorist measures" and demanded the withdrawal of Armenian troops from the region. Yerevan, in turn, said there were no Armenian forces in Karabakh, calling what was happening "an act of large-scale aggression." The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the parties to end the bloodshed and return to efforts to resolve the issue diplomatically. On September 20, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced that an agreement on the suspension of the anti-terrorist measures in Karabakh had been reached through the mediation of Russia’s peacekeeping mission.