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BAKU: Azerbaijan said on Sunday that Armenian forces had bombed its second city of Ganja in an escalation of the war in the southern Caucasus.
Armenia denied firing at Azerbaijan, but the leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan, said his forces had destroyed a military air base in Ganja.
“Permanent military units located in the big cities of Azerbaijan will from now on become targets of the defense army,” said Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan.
The fighting that broke out a week ago between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces has escalated in the past two days and has spread far beyond the breakaway Karabakh region.
It carries the risk of a full-scale war between the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia that could drag out other powers. Azerbaijan has the support of Turkey, while Armenia has a defense pact with Russia.
Local journalists in Ganja said the airport had been attacked.
Ganja, with a population of 335,000, is located about 100 km (60 miles) north of Karabakh’s capital, Stepanakert, and 80 km from the Armenian city of Vardenis. Azerbaijan has previously accused Armenia of firing at its territory from Vardenis, and Yerevan has denied it.
Casualties from last week’s fighting have risen to the hundreds, although precise figures are impossible to obtain.
Armenia said the Karabakh cities of Stepanakert and Martakert were under attack by Azerbaijani air force and long-range missiles.
Each side accused the other of attacking civilians.
