Azerbaijani officials accuse Armenian forces of killing Azerbaijani soldier

AP Worldstream; Mar 30, 2006

An Azerbaijani soldier was killed Thursday by Armenian fire on the
volatile border between the two Caucasus nations, officials said.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Ilgar Verdiyev said the soldier
was killed by an Armenian sniper near the village of Alibeyli in the
northern Tovuz region of Azerbaijan.

Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman Seiran Shakhsuvarian dismissed
the Azerbaijani statement, saying Armenian forces had not fired on
Azerbaijani positions.

The two countries remain at odds over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh,
an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. A cease-fire agreement
was reached in 1994 after six years of fighting, and the enclave is now
under the control of ethnic Armenians, whose troops face Azerbaijani
forces across a half-mile-wide (kilometer-wide) no man’s land.

Clashes break out sporadically along the tense border, however, and
the countries’ presidents have traded increasingly bellicose statements
since talks to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh’s status broke down last month.

The Nagorno-Karabakh separatist government issued a statement Thursday
accusing Azerbaijani forces of violating the cease-fire. It said
Azerbaijani shelling of Nagorno-Karabakh forces on Wednesday led
to a suspension of activities of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s monitoring mission in the area.