20 Armenian Soldiers Reported Dead, 26 MIA as Heavy Fighting Continues in NKR

The latest flare-up of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the night of April 2 has left at least 20 Armenian servicemen dead and 72 others injured; NKR military authorities have also reported 4 civilian casualties, while 26 soldiers have been reported as missing in action.

Heavy firing and shelling along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and NKR armed forces, as well as against civilian population in a number of front-line villages, shows no signs of abating, with the political and military authorities in both countries accusing each other of unwillingness to abandon their uncompromising position and stop violating the 1994 ceasefire. 

The NKR Defense Ministry reported Tuesday that Azerbaijan used a Russian-made Smerch heavy multiple rocket launcher the previous night in shelling the Nagorno Karabakh military positions; no casualties have been reported in the incident so far.

Meanwhile, tensions seem to have escalated on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border as well, with an Armenian soldier having been wounded in an overnight exchange of fire between the armed forces of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The Azeri shelling, as reported by Armenian military officials, mainly took place in the direction of the villages of Berdavan and Koti in Armenia’s Tavush province.