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Baku announces destroying Armenian combat aircraft

A combat aircraft of the Armenian Air Force was shot down by Azerbaijani air defense units, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said

BAKU, October 24. /TASS/. The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry announced destroying an Armenian Air Force combat aircraft in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday.

"On the afternoon of October 24, a combat aircraft of the Armenian Air Force was shot down by Azerbaijani air defense units," the ministry said in a statement.

Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The area experienced flare-ups of violence in the summer of 2014, in April 2016 and this past July. Azerbaijan and Armenia have imposed martial law and launched mobilization efforts. Both parties to the conflict have reported casualties, among them civilians.

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.