KARABAKH CASUALTY TOLL DISPUTED

BBC NEWS
urope/7278871.stm
2008/03/05 11:25:06 GMT

Armenia and Azerbaijan have made conflicting casualty claims following
clashes in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Tuesday.

Baku said 12 Armenian and four Azeri soldiers were killed, accusing
Yerevan of provoking the shootout.

A spokesman for pro-Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh said two
of its troops were wounded and eight Azeri soldiers killed in the
clashes started by Baku.

Pro-Armenian troops seized Azerbaijan’s region during the war in
the 1990s.

If confirmed, the fighting was heavier than most of the skirmishes
that often break out along a ceasefire line that was agreed in 1994.

On Tuesday, Azeri authorities told the BBC that Armenia had provoked
the clashes to divert attention from its domestic problems.

Eight people died during clashes with police in the Armenian capital
Yerevan on Saturday, after disputed elections in February.

Armenia and Azerbaijan still technically remain at war with each other.

Earlier this week, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said Baku was
ready to re-take the region by force, and had been buying the military
hardware and ammunition to do so.

Some 30,000 people were killed and more than one million fled their
homes during several years of fighting.