Azerbaijan and Armenia clash over disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region

Clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces have occurred over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, with at least one Azerbaijani helicopter shot down.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Azerbaijan had launched an air and artillery strike.

Azerbaijan said it was responding to the shelling along the entire front and that civilians were killed and injured.

The protracted conflict has flared up again in recent months.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan were part of the Soviet Union before its collapse in 1991.

For four decades they have been trapped in an unresolved conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but controlled by ethnic Armenians.

The Armenian Defense Ministry said an attack on civilian settlements, including the regional capital Stepanakert, began at 08:10 local time (04:10 GMT).

He said he had shot down two helicopters and three drones and destroyed three tanks.

“Our response will be proportionate, and the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan bears full responsibility for the situation,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan announced a “counter-offensive operation by our troops across the front to suppress the combat activity of the Armenian armed forces and guarantee the safety of the civilian population.”

The intensive bombing of several villages had resulted in the death or injury of civilians and serious damage to infrastructure, his Defense Ministry said.

He added that a helicopter was lost but the crew survived and 12 Armenian air defense systems were destroyed. He denied other losses reported by Armenia.

Tensions flared into conflict for the last time in 2016, with countries clashing over disputed territory for four days.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has long been trying to mediate a solution to the conflict, with diplomats from France, Russia, and the United States, forming the OSCE’s Minsk Group, trying to build a ceasefire.