Azerbaijani soldier killed in fire from Armenians: Baku

Agence France Presse — English
August 4, 2006 Friday 12:38 PM GMT

BAKU, Aug 4 2006 — An Azerbaijani soldier has been killed by fire
from ethnic Armenian forces near the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region,
the defense ministry in Baku said Friday.

The 20-year-old, Babek Mirzaliyev, died Thursday on the Azerbaijani
side of a ceasefire line that has been in place since a temporary
accord was reached between Baku and Yerevan over the disputed region
in 1994.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war over the Armenian-majority
enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which seceded from Soviet Azerbaijan in
the early 1980s.

The conflict claimed 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands
of people, ending in the 1994 ceasefire.

Tensions have remained high and incidents occur regularly, with the
Armenian-controlled region’s status still unresolved.