BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 9
Trend:
Tense battles continued along the entire front line from the second half of October 8 to the morning of Oct.9, Trend reports citing the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.
According to the ministry, units of the Azerbaijani army, inflicting fire strikes on the Armenian Armed Forces in important directions, completely limited their combat activity.
The ministry said that as a result of the measures taken, control and interaction between the Armenian troops was completely lost, Armenian military servicemen are leaving their combat positions in mass order.
“During yesterday's military operations, as a result of shelling from the Azerbaijani army, the headquarters of the 5th Mountain Rifle Regiment of the Armenian Armed Forces was destroyed,” the ministry noted. “As a result, the Chief of Staff of the 10th Division, Colonel Samvel Grigoryan, who was in the building, was seriously wounded, the chief of artillery of the regiment, Colonel - Lieutenant Arman Dermeyan, and a large number of the servicemen were killed.”
“The personnel of the military units of the Armenian Armed Forces, which suffered heavy losses as a result of the strikes of the Azerbaijani army, are being evacuated from Khankendi,” added the ministry.
Armenian Armed Forces launched a large-scale military attack on positions of Azerbaijani army on the front line, using large-caliber weapons, mortars and artillery on Sept. 27.
Azerbaijan responded with a counter-offensive along the entire front. As a result of retaliation, Azerbaijani troops liberated a number of territories previously occupied by Armenia, as well as take important, strategic heights under control.
The fighting continued into October 2020, in the early days of which Armenia has launched missile attacks on Azerbaijani cities of Ganja, Mingachevir, Khizi as well as Absheron district.
On October 6th, at about 9 pm (GMT+4), Armenian Armed Forces launched missiles at Azerbaijani Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the largest strategic project in the region, which plays an important role in Europe's energy security. Azerbaijani army was able to disable the missiles in the air, so no damage was done to the pipeline.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.