Azerbaijani Soldier Killed In Nagorno-Karabakh

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry says one of its soldiers was killed in an exchange of fire over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on May 3.

On April 2, Nagorno-Karabakh saw the worst fighting since a cease-fire deal was reached in 1994 in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

A new cease-fire deal went into effect on April 5, but that shaky truce increasingly is being violated.

The mountainous region is located within Azerbaijan, but was seized by ethnic Armenian forces in the early 1990s after interethnic bloodletting erupted into full-scale war.

More than 30,000 died, and hundreds of thousands were displaced before a 1994 cease-fire took hold.

The dispute has hindered economic growth in the entire South Caucasus, home to important trade routes and key oil and gas pipelines.

Based on reporting by Reuters