AZERI SOLDIER KILLED IN KARABAKH CEASEFIRE VIOLATION: CLAIM

Agence France Presse — English
April 3, 2006 Monday 10:59 AM GMT

Azerbaijan accused Armenian forces Monday of killing an Azeri soldier
in the latest shooting incident on the ceasefire line separating the
two armies around Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry said that Armenian soldiers opened fire
Sunday on Azeri positions near the village of Ashagy Abdulrakhmanly
in the Fizuli region. “As a result, two servicemen were wounded,”
the ministry said. “Later, (one) died of his wounds.”

Positions near another frontline village also came under fire,
although without causing casualties, according to the ministry.

The two south Caucasian republics have observed a tense ceasefire since
1994, following the expulsion of Azeri forces and all ethnic-Azeris by
Armenian-backed separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh, which was a majority
ethnic-Armenian province in Azerbaijan.

Minor violations are reported regularly along Nagorno Karabakh’s
eastern border and along other frontlines running through
Armenian-occupied Azerbaijan. The internationally backed negotiating
process is at an impasse following the failure to make progress at
high-level talks near Paris in February.

Azerbaijan has also accused Armenia of deadly shooting incidents
on March 7 and March 30. Armenia said that one of its soldiers was
killed March 3.