Armenia says soldier killed in shootout with Azerbaijani forces

YEREVEN, Armenian — An Armenian soldier was killed Tuesday in a border shootout with Azerbaijani forces, Armenia’s defense ministry said, with tensions still high after last September’s war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.اضافة اعلان

It said that the situation was now “calm” after the skirmish at the Verin Shorzha border point in Armenia’s eastern Gegharkunik district.

The area borders the Kalbajar region that was retaken by Azerbaijan after the war.

“One serviceman has been killed as a result of a shootout that followed the opening of fire by Azerbaijani troops,” the ministry said in a statement.

A long-simmering conflict over Karabakh — a breakaway Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan — erupted into full-blown war in late September, with some 6,000 people killed in six weeks of fighting.

It ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Armenia cede to Azerbaijan swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.

The ceasefire, monitored by some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers, has largely held but tensions have continued and there have been several border incidents.

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