Azerbaijan says three soldiers killed by Armenian forces

.c The Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Three Azerbaijani soldiers have died this week
as a result of gunfire from the Armenian side of a tense cease-fire
line separating troops near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, the
Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

Two of the soldiers were fatally shot late Monday by ethnic Armenian
forces violating a 1994 cease-fire, ministry spokesman Ilgar Verdiyev
said. A third serviceman died from wounds suffered when he was shot by
a sniper on March 2, Verdiyev said.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied any violations of the cease-fire.

A mountainous region inside Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh has been
under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s, following
fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people and drove a million
from their homes before the cease-fire deal was reached. The enclave’s
political status has not been determined, and shooting breaks out
frequently between the two sides, which face off across a
demilitarized buffer zone.

03/15/05 13:50 EST