The flare-up in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict for Nagorno-Karabakh entered its third week on Sunday, with fighting for the mountainous South Caucasus territory estimated to have killed more than 65 civilians and injured over 320 others, and, according to the two warring parties' tallies of the other side's military dead more than 8,150 enemy troops have been killed or injured. Officially, Yerevan says 480 Armenian troops and Karabakh defence forces militia have died. azerbaijan does not disclose its casualties.
Hints about the approaching conflict appeared on September 25, two days before fighting began, when both sides accused one another of concentrating forces along the front line. A week before, on September 19, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said he “negatively” assessed prospects for further negotiations in resolving the decades-old Karabakh issue, in which the Azeri side seeks the return of territories it lost in the aftermath of the Soviet breakup.
Who Started It?
Azerbaijan, Armenia, and officials from the unrecognised Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh Republic continue to contest who started the fighting. On the early morning of Sunday, September 27, Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry accused the Armenian side of launching an attack along the entire front using rocket artillery. Yerevan countered, alleging that Azeri forces launched artillery and air strikes against military and civilian positions in Karabakh, including the region's capital of…
