Five security personnel were killed in an apparent shootout between ethnic Armenian police in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani soldiers in the breakaway region, authorities on both sides said.
A state minister in Nagorno-Karabakh’s de facto government on March 5 said three police officers were shot dead in an ambush by an Azerbaijani "sabotage group," while authorities in Baku said two Azerbaijani soldiers were killed while attempting to stop Armenian vehicles from smuggling weapons into the breakaway region.
Both sides rejected the other side's allegations. It was not immediately possible to verify claims.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been sparring over Nagorno-Karabakh for decades. The mainly ethnic Armenian enclave is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994 with some 30,000 dead.
During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan regained control of much of Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,500 people died in the fighting, which was ended by a Russia-brokered peace agreement.
Tensions have flared recently as the only road linking Karabakh to Armenia has been blocked by government-backed Azerbaijani protesters since December 12.
The main issue has been the inspection of trucks traveling the road. Karabakh representatives told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that they are ready to discuss the installation of X-ray machines in the corridor, but they must be controlled by Russian peacekeepers.
Azerbaijan denies it keeps Karabakh in a blockade, referring to the fact that vehicles of Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region following the deadly 2020 war, as well as vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross, have been able to drive in and out of the region, providing it with vital supplies.
Tensions Remain High Over Breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Region
On March 5, Gurgen Nersisian, a state minister in Karabakh’s de facto government, said ethnic Armenian “police officers were driving in a vehicle from the Karabakh side to our police station. There were no weapons or ammunition in the vehicle at all.”
Nersisian said that along with the three killed personnel, one other police officer was injured in the incident, which he blamed on "a sabotage group of the Azerbaijani armed forces."
Authorities in Azerbaijan, meanwhile, rejected the claims of the ethnic Armenians, saying that two soldiers were killed when Azerbaijan’s military tried to stop Armenian vehicles from smuggling weapons and ammunition into Karabakh from Armenia.
“Today’s incident once again shows that Azerbaijan needs to set up a checkpoint” on the key road linking Armenian and Karabakh, known as the Lachin Corridor, the Azerbaijani authorities said.