AZERBAIJAN SAYS MILITARY OFFICER KILLED NEAR NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Associated Press
Oct 8 2007

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) – Azerbaijani officials said Monday that
an Azerbaijani military officer has been killed near the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The ethnic-Armenian controlled region’s
army denied the statement.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said the officer
was killed Sunday when Armenian forces fired on Azerbaijani positions
in the Agdam and Fizuli regions near the boundary of Nagorno-Karabakh,
in violation of a 1994 ceasefire.

A spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh’s army, Senor Asratyan, denied anyone
was killed and said no shooting had taken place Sunday.

The claim underscored mounting tension over the disputed territory,
which is part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled _ along with
some surrounding areas _ by local and Armenian forces since 1994,
when a cease-fire ended a six-year separatist war.

Some 30,000 people were killed and about 1 million driven from their
homes during the fighting. Ethnic Armenians now account for virtually
the entire population of the territory.

Nagorno-Karabakh held presidential elections in July, which Azerbaijan
has rejected as illegitimate.