Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are investigating an incident on the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces in which several Azerbaijani farmers were killed or injured when they were looking for lost cattle in the no man's land between the two sides.
The two conflicting parties are giving somewhat different versions of the story but the most likely version is that the farmers strayed into the no man's land looking for cattle. Two were injured and another is missing presumed dead. The area is heavily mined and there are constant exchange of fires between the two sides. A spokesperson for the ICRC said that their representatives were in the Gazakh area where the incident occured on Sunday. Earlier a spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence said that "Armenian army units fired on the positions of Azerbaijani Army from their posts near Marzili, Shikhlar villages of Aghdam, in the nameless uplands of Goygol and Khojavand regions yesterday and last night."
The Armenian side also confirmed that the incident had taken place and that there had been a number of cease fire violations over the last days initiated by the Azerbaijani side and to which the Armenian side responded. However the spokesperson for the Defence Ministry categorically denied that the Armenian side had taken any prisoners.
The incidents on the line of contact continue to take a heavy toll in military and civilian casualties despite the cease fire regime in place.
souce: commonspace.eu with APA and news.am
photo: A general scene of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict zone (archive picture)
