YEREVAN, STEPANAKERT—A soldier was killed by Azerbaijani gunfire on the STEPANAKERT while another was killed on the Karabakh-Azerbaijan border, as the Azerbaijani armed forces launched an attack on Armenian positions on Thursday on two fronts.

 

The Armenian Defense Ministry announced that Private Grisha Khachatrian, 20, died Thursday of fatal wounds when Azerbaijani troops opened fire on the Nakhichevan border. Khachatrian was from the Sanakounk village in the Sisian region of Armenia.

On Thursday evening, Contract serviceman and Karabakh citizen Narek Poghosyan, 26, when Azerbaijani forces opened fire on the Matuni district of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

While no official statements were made on casualties on the Azerbaijani side, the Azeri press reported Friday that two soldiers were killed and one wounded on the Azerbaijan-Karabakh border shortly after the earlier attacks on Martuni.

The Azerbaijani press reported that an Azeri soldier opened fire on his own battalion, killing one soldier and injuring another before taking his own life.

Azerbaijani forces also opened fire on the village of Aygepar in the Tavush district of Armenia.

The village administrator Andranik Aydinian told the Yerevan-based Aysor.am that gunfire erupted from the Azerbaijani side around 6 p.m. and lasted until 7:30 p.m. Aydinian added that the village has seen such attacks for several days, one of them targeting a five-story building, around which children were reportedly playing.

US Ambassador in Baku Reacts
“Any casualties on the line of contact are tragic and emphasize the need for resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as soon as possible,” the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar told reporters on Friday

Morningstar said that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen were “working with both countries to try to ensure that hostilities on the line of contact are not escalated and become minimised.”