Three Azeris said captured by Armenia

Agence France Presse
Feb 17 2005

BAKU, Feb 17 (AFP) – Armenian forces have captured three Azeri soldiers
along the ceasefire line dividing Azerbaijan and Armenian-occupied
territory, the defense ministry said here Thursday.

“The defense ministry has started working on freeing them,” a ministry
spokesman told AFP.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a stalemate over the ethnic
Armenian enclave Nagorno Karabakh ever since they ended large-scale
hostilities with an uneasy ceasefire agreement in 1994.

Armenia controls Karabakh and seven surrounding regions equal
to roughly 14 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized
territory.

In the past the Red Cross has sometimes intervened to negotiate the
release of Azeri soldiers captured by Armenian forces.

About a dozen soldiers lose their lives from sniper fire and mines
along the ceasefire line every year.