KALBAJAR, Azerbaijan, December 15. Mines were planted in Chirag village of Azerbaijan’s Kalbajar district presumably in December 2020, an officer of the Ground Forces of the Azerbaijani Army, Major Ruslan Samadov said commenting on the recent mine explosion in Kalbajar, Trend reports from the scene.
According to Samadov, during neither the First Karabakh War nor the 2020 Second Karabakh War, defense lines didn’t pass through Chirag village.
"The planting of mines in these areas in the absence of any military necessity is proof of the terrorist activities of the Armenian side,” he noted.
“As a result of the actions of the Armenian terrorists, on June 4, 2021, the correspondent of the Azerbaijan State News Agency Maharram Ibrahimov and the operator of the AzTV channel Siraj Abishov died when they hit an anti-tank mine near Susuzlug village in the Kalbajar district. Responsibility for all these terrorist acts directly lies with the leadership of Armenia," Samadov added.
On December 14, 2022, the Military Prosecutor's Office of Kalbajar district received information that eight people hit a landmine near the district’s Chirag village at around 18:00 (GMT+4).
It was established that four employees of Azerbaijan's construction company and four servicemen suffered from an anti-personnel landmine blast in the mentioned village. Following the landmine blast, one of the servicemen, ensign of the Azerbaijani army Zohrab Humbatov died.
Since the end of the second Karabakh war, 276 Azerbaijani citizens (153 military servicemen and 123 civilians) have suffered from mine explosions. As a result of the mine explosions, 45 citizens (35 civilians and 10 military servicemen) were killed, and 231 citizens (143 military servicemen and 88 civilians) received injuries of varying severity.