NKR Defense Ministry: 12 Azeri soldiers killed

NKR Defense Ministry: 12 Azeri soldiers killed –

Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian-backed Defense Army, meanwhile, claimed on Monday to have killed and wounded more than a dozen Azerbaijani soldiers in “punitive” operations carried out over the weekend. It also denied Baku’s claims that seven Armenian soldiers were killed on the night from Sunday to Monday.

In a separate statement, the Karabakh Armenian army said that Azerbaijani forces fired nearly 150 mortar shells and 24 rockets on its frontline positions over the past 24 hours.

The fighting continued unabated despite international mediators’ strong condemnation of the latest ceasefire violations and calls for the conflicting parties to de-escalate the situation. In that regard, the U.S., Russian and French co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group urged Baku on Saturday to accept their long-standing proposal to set up a mechanism for international investigations of truce violations.

The Armenian military pledged to retaliate strongly for the deaths of those soldiers as well as three civilian residents of Armenian border villages shelled by the Azerbaijani side on Thursday. It said that it will now use heavier artillery against Azerbaijani troops.a