BAKU, July 12. /TASS/. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said on Sunday positions of its army at the Azerbaijani-Armenian border came under shelling by the Armenian army.

"Starting from noon on July 12, Armenian army units opened artillery shelling at our positions at the Tovuz section of the Azerbaijan-Armenian state border, having blatantly violated the ceasefire," it said, adding that two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in the incident.

"Armenian army units made an attempt to attack the Azerbaijani army positions at the Tovuz section of the state border using artillery systems. As a result of retaliatory measures, the enemy was rebuffed and retreated sustaining losses. Two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed and five more were wounded in the incident," the ministry said.

The conflict between neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan over the highland region of 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 early 1988 after the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijani Soviet Republic.

In 1991-1994, the confrontation spilled over into large-scale military action for control over the enclave and some adjacent territories after Azerbaijan lost control of them.

Talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement have been held since 1992 in the format of the so-called OSCE Minsk Group, comprising along with its three co-chairs - Russia, France and the United States - Belarus, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Turkey.