STEPANAKERT (A.W.)—The Defense Ministry of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic (Artsakh) reported this week that the Karabagh Defense Army conducted two overnight raids on March 6, aimed at thwarting recent Azerbaijani ceasefire violations at different points on the Karabagh-Azerbaijan Line of Contact (LOC).
Three Azerbaijani servicemen and four Special Forces troops were killed during the raids.
The three servicemen were shot dead after firing live rounds from an anti-aircraft gun. “During those operations, the Armenian side suffered no losses,” read the statement released by the Karabagh Defense Army.
The pre-emptive operation also left four Azerbaijani commandos dead at another point of the LOC. Those troops, according to the statement, were getting ready to attack Artsakh Army positions in Karabagh’s northern Martakert district.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has confirmed one of the raids, but insists that none of its servicemen died during the fighting. Instead, it released a statement claiming that Karabagh-Armenian forces suffered casualties; the claim was quickly denied by military authorities in both Stepanakert and Yerevan.
On Feb. 28, an Azerbaijani Army raid along the northeastern portion of the LOC resulted in the death of Artak Aghekyan and Hayk Baroyan, two Armenian servicemen of the Artsakh Defense Army.
Twenty-year-old Armenian serviceman Arsen Karapetyan, who was stationed at one of the frontier units of the Artsakh Defense Army, was killed in the early morning hours of March 3. According to CivilNet, Karapetyan was killed by Azerbaijani gunfire on the western portion of the LOC.
Speaking to reporters on March 5 at Yerevan’s Yerablur Military Pantheon, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said that while the border situation is tense, it is under control.
“Shots, ceasefire violations periodically increase, but they are under control. The Armenian Armed Forces, both in Artsakh and in Armenia, carry out their tasks in defending the border settlements,” Ohanyan said. He added that the Azerbaijani provocations will “get the counterblows they deserve.”
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