Karabakh: One serviceman killed in repulsing Azeri commando raids


Karabakh: One serviceman killed in repulsing Azeri commando raids –

Military authorities in Stepanakert say one ethnic Armenian serviceman has been killed in defending against a number of commando raids attempted by Azerbaijan forces overnight. 

According to a statement released by the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry, Azerbaijani armed forces launched as many as eight “sabotage-reconnaissance” raids along the Line of Contact on the night of January 20, which, however, were timely spotted and rebuffed by the Karabakh military. 

“Suffering casualties, the enemy was thrown back,” the report said. Suren Pilosyan, a 19-year-old serviceman, was fatally wounded while defending one of the military posts, it added. 

Nagorno-Karabakh also accused Azerbaijan of violating the ceasefire regime along the Line of Contact 220 times during the night. It said Azeri forces fired more than 2,000 shots from firearms of different caliber in the violations.

Since the beginning of the year Nagorno-Karabakh has lost three of its servicemen in ceasefire violations blamed on Azerbaijan. Another Armenian serviceman was killed by Azerbaijani forces at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border last weekend.

During a meeting with personal representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk on Monday, Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakyan said that gross violations of the ceasefire regime by Azerbaijan endanger stability and peace in the region. He further stressed that such violations are “a serious blow to the mediatory efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group.”


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