ugc_banner

Nagorno-Karabakh fighting: Missile hits Azerbaijan city, several dead

WION Web Team
Ganja, Azerbaijan Updated: Oct 17, 2020, 08:42 AM IST
main img
Photograph:(AFP)

Story highlights

The fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia had erupted on September 27 over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh which is part of Azerbaijan but populated by majority ethnic Armenians. 

Amid renewed fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, a missile struck Azerbaijan's Ganja in the early hours of Saturday while most residents were asleep.

Watch:

Reports said at least 20 houses were destroyed due to the missile strike with at least 10 people killed. 

As the fighting escalated, US secretary of state Mike Pompeo blamed Azerbaijan's ally Turkey saying: "Third-party countries coming in to lend their firepower to what is already a powder keg of a situation."

The fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia had erupted on September 27 over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh which is part of Azerbaijan but populated by majority ethnic Armenians. 

Both countries had fought a war over Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 1990s after the breakup of the former Soviet Union in which at least 30,000 people were killed leading to a truce in 1994.

Reports said there was second missile strike in Ganja but it could not be confirmed amid heavy shelling in Stepanakert.

Armenia and Azerbaijan had reached a ceasefire agreement in Moscow last week however shelling began on the ground just hours after the peace deal was stuck. The Minsk group comprising of France, Russia and the United States had helped broker the peace deal amid fighting in the region.

Meanwhile, the Armenian defence ministry said Azerbaijan had conducted artillery bombardments on Nagorno-Karabakh from the north as both sides continue to accuse each other escalating the conflict.