The fierce fighting in the Caucasus region has left hundreds dead so far. (File)
Stepanakert:
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces accused each other of bombing civilian areas on Saturday morning ahead of a ceasefire agreed to end nearly two weeks of heavy fighting in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The region’s ombudsman, Artak Beglaryan, said Azerbaijan fired missiles at civilian areas in its main town, Stepanakert, which has been regularly the target of rocket and artillery fire.
“Baku uses the same style of #WarCrimes at the very last moment,” Artak Beglaryan said on Twitter, adding that there was no information on the victims yet.
An AFP reporter in the city reported hearing two explosions in the morning after Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the ceasefire starting at noon on Saturday (08:00 GMT).
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Armenian forces were bombing civilian areas of the country.
“Armenian armed forces are intensely bombarding the populated areas of Geranboy, Terter, Agdam, Agjaberdi and Fizuli districts. Azerbaijan is taking reciprocal measures,” the ministry said in a statement.
Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the ceasefire in the early hours of Saturday, after 11 hours of Russian-mediated talks in Moscow.
The fierce fighting in the Caucasus region has left hundreds dead, forced thousands to flee and stoked fears of a full-fledged war that could suck regional powers Turkey and Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the two sides agreed in talks to start “substantive negotiations” to end the conflict over Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that claimed the lives of some 30,000 people.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
