AZERBAIJANI AND ARMENIAN FORCES CLASH NEAR BORDER

GulfNews
March 5 2008
United Arab Emirates

Baku: Officials in Azerbaijan and Armenia made conflicting casualty
claims on Wednesday following clashes near the disputed territory
of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry accused the Armenian forces of starting
fighting on Tuesday and said three of its servicemen had been killed
and one wounded. Ministry spokesman Eldar Sabiroglu said 12 Armenian
soldiers had been killed and another 15 were wounded during several
hours of clashes.

A military spokesman for ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh,
Senor Asratian, said late on Tuesday that eight Azerbaijani soldiers
had been killed and two of the separatist region’s soldiers wounded
in clashes northeast of the region.

The clashes came as Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliev, issued his
latest suggestion that his country could use force to regain control
over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The region is inside Azerbaijan but has been under ethnic Armenian
control since a 1994 ceasefire ended a six-year war.