Agence France Presse — English
April 26, 2006 Wednesday 10:59 PM GMT
Three Armenian soldiers wounded on Azerbaijani border: Armenian
ministry
Three Armenian soldiers have been wounded by shots coming from across
the border with Azerbaijan, in violation of the ceasefire observed by
the two estranged countries, Armenia’s defense ministry said in a
statement late Wednesday.
Two of the soldiers were wounded late Tuesday, and another one early
Wednesday on Armenia’s north-eastern border with Azerbaijan, the
ministry said.
“The defense ministry refutes declarations by the Azerbaijani side,
according to which the Armenian side started the shooting. In both
cases, the Armenian side refrained from shooting back,” the statement
said.
Armenian and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war over the
Armenian-majority enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, which seceded from
Azerbaijan in the early 1980s.
The conflict claimed 25,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands
of people, ending in a 1994 ceasefire. Since then, tensions have
remained high between the two countries and incidents occur
regularly, with each side blaming the other.