Today, Tuesday, Armenia and Azerbaijan exchanged accusations of bombing areas far from the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region, with the fiercest fighting between the two sides since the 1990s for the third day, and mounting civilian deaths, while the Security Council held this evening an emergency session to discuss developments in the war.

Dozens have been reported killed and hundreds injured since the outbreak of violent clashes.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that ten civilians had been killed in the Armenian bombing since Sunday.

On Sunday, Azerbaijan reported that five of the same family had been killed, while Armenia said on Tuesday that a nine-year-old girl was killed in the bombing and her mother and brother were injured.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry said that a civilian was killed today, Tuesday, in the town of Wardenis, after Azerbaijani artillery and a drone bombed the town.

And the Ministry of Defense in Azerbaijan said today, Tuesday, that the fighting continued during the night, and added in a statement that the opposition forces tried to regain the lost areas by launching counterattacks, and the countries deployed heavy artillery.

The spokesman for the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense, Colonel Waqif Dargahli, denied what Armenia announced yesterday about shooting down a warplane for his country, and confirmed that the news is untrue, and that it is rumors aimed at raising the morale of the Armenian army.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense stated that the "opposing forces" tried to regain the lands they lost, and launched counterattacks in the direction of Fuzuli, Gabriel, Aghdam and Tirter regions.

In a statement, the ministry said that a clash took place in the morning around the city of Fuzuli, and that the Armenian army bombed the Dashkan region on the border between the two countries, miles from Nagorny Karabakh.

Armenia denied this.

However, it stated that there had been fighting all night, and that the Nagorno Karabakh army repelled attacks from several directions along the line of contact.

And the separatist authorities in the region announced that 26 of their soldiers were killed Monday evening in the battles against the Azerbaijani forces, bringing the total of their human losses since the outbreak of the confrontations Sunday to 84 people.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to cease hostilities.

He said during a visit to Crete, "I and the (Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias) discussed the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh. There is a need for the two sides to stop violence and work with the countries that co-chair the Minsk Group and return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible."

German government spokesman Stephen Seibert said today, Tuesday, that Chancellor Angela Merkel called for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, in two phone calls with the leaders of the two countries.

Under international law, the Nagorno Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan;

But the Armenians - who make up the vast majority of its population - reject Baku rule.

The region has been running its own affairs with the support of Armenia since it split from Azerbaijan during a conflict that erupted when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

Despite the agreement on a ceasefire in 1994 after thousands of deaths and the displacement of many more, the two countries frequently exchange accusations of launching attacks within the region and on the borders between them.

An emergency session

In conjunction with these developments, the UN Security Council, at the request of European countries, will hold a closed emergency meeting in which it discusses developments in Nagorny Karabakh, while battles continued during the night between the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in the region, causing deaths and injuries.

The sources said that the meeting will be held around 9 pm GMT, at the request of Belgium, following an initiative by Germany and France.

Since Sunday, Estonia, a non-permanent member of the Security Council, has insisted that the council should meet to discuss the situation in the region.

According to the same diplomatic sources, Britain has joined the European request.

According to diplomats, the Security Council may issue a statement at the conclusion of the meeting, and in the event that this is not possible, since the Council’s statements are not issued except by consensus, then the European member states of the Council can issue a statement representing them alone.

This came as bloody battles continued at dawn on Tuesday between the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in Nagorno Karabakh.

World leaders urged the two sides to stop the fighting after the fiercest escalation in the region since 2016 raised fears of a new all-out war between Armenia and Azerbaijan.