Armenia and Azerbaijan ignore calls for calm

The two parties to the confrontations in Nagorno Karabakh suffer heavy losses

A soldier from Armenia during the fight against Azerbaijani forces in the Nagorno Karabakh region.

Reuters

Yesterday, the Azerbaijani and Armenian forces announced that they suffered heavy losses on the other side, while battles raged for the third day around the Nagorno Karabakh region.

The United States repeated the calls supported by Germany and Russia to stop the violent clashes that broke out on Sunday without being heard by the two rivals, who were from the former Soviet Union, and have been fighting for decades for control of Karabakh.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet to hold urgent discussions about the military escalation in the Armenian-majority region, where battles in recent days have left about 100 people dead, according to confirmed reports.

The two sides confirmed yesterday that the fighting will continue despite international calls for a ceasefire.

In high-pitched remarks, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, pledged to continue the fight.

The Armenian Ministry of Defense said that the separatists in Karabakh managed to repel the Azerbaijani attacks along the front line, stressing that "they suffered heavy human losses."

She added that the Azerbaijani army suffered heavy losses since the outbreak of the confrontations, with the downing of about 50 drones and four helicopters and the destruction of 80 tanks.

In Baku, defense officials denied the separatist fighters' reports that Armenian-backed forces had regained control of areas they had lost in Sunday's battles.

Azerbaijan said its army responded to an Armenian counterattack, destroying an armored Armenian convoy and artillery unit, and later an infantry regiment supported by entire military vehicles.

The Ministry of Defense confirmed that its forces "continued an attack on the city of Fizuli" in the Karabakh region, and "destroyed four tanks and an armored vehicle and killed 10 soldiers."

Azerbaijan also threatened to destroy the Russian-made S-300 surface-to-air missile system, which it said was being transferred to Karabakh.

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