Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Armenian armed units violated ceasefire with Azerbaijan and opened intense firing on the Azerbaijani positions with heavy weapons on April 4 despite the fact that Azerbaijan unilaterally announced ceasefire on April 3.

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry reported that the enemy forces do not stop provocative actions and continue shelling Azerbaijan’s populated areas and civilians densely residing in the territories adjacent to the frontline area, open intensive heavy weapons fire at the positions of Azerbaijan’s armed forces along the line of contact mainly in the direction of Agdere-Terter and Khojavand-Fizuli regions.

Armenian armed forces have broken the ceasefire with Azerbaijan 121 times by using 60, 82, 120 mm caliber mortars in various parts of the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies in the last 24 hours. Azerbaijani armed forces inflicted 125 strikes upon Armenian positions.

During the last day and night, the Armenians lost numerous soldiers and military equipment in an attempt to return the lost positions.

In the battles, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces lost 3 servicemen.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has refuted the reports disseminated by the Armenians that they took control of new positions.

Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry Vagif Dargyahli said that “Azerbaijani troops did not lose any position, and Azerbaijani Armed Forces fully control the operational situation."

On the night of April 2, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns.

Azerbaijani settlements near the contact line, densely populated by civilians, were fired at as well. Civilians were killed and wounded as a result of the Armenian attacks.

As a result of the counter-attack, the heights near the village of Talish, which were posing a threat to the Goranboy district and Naftalan city, as well as the Seysulan settlement, have been cleared of the enemy forces.

In order to protect the city of Horadiz, the Azerbaijani army took the height ‘Lele Tepe’ under its control, which allowed to carry out supervision of a large area.

Six Armenian tanks, 15 gun mounts and reinforced engineering structures have been destroyed and more than 100 servicemen of the Armenian armed forces were wounded and killed during the shootouts. Twelve servicemen of the Azerbaijani armed forces heroically died, one Mi-24 helicopter was shot down and one tank damaged by a mine.

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Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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