Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan’s National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) has launched demining operations to detonate unexploded ordnances (UXOs) in villages adjacent to the front-line area.

As a result of monitoring held in Gapanli village of Azerbaijan’s Terter region, field engineers examined the courtyards of houses and detonated unexploded ordinances.

Gapanli village has suffered of enemy's aggression over many years. During the recent provocations in Nagorno-Karabakh, the village has become the main target of the Armenian belligerent army. Within three days, Armenian armed forces have fired Gapanli, targeting mainly civilians using heavy artillery weapons.

ANAMA found seven shells in the yard of villager Elnur Mammadov and as a result both living spaces and auxiliary buildings suffered.

“We have examined about 100 shell holes, as well as found and defused 36 unexploded ordinances,” ANAMA representative Babek Mirzayev told media, calling the villagers to be more careful.

"We ask everyone to report to relevant bodies about detected suspicious objects,” he said.

The ANAMA-held demininig operations are currently in Terter, Agdam, Fuzuli and Goranboy regions of Azerbaijan.

The agency could find and detonate four exploded and 19 unexploded ordnances while monitoring seven houses, two planted areas and one farm.

In general, ANAMA defused 49 unexploded ordnances in the front-line area from April 7 to April 14.

On the night of April 2, 2016, Armenia subjected all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan to heavy fire using large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers.

The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. As a result of the shelling 32 settlements, six civilians were killed, including two children under 16 years, and 26 residents were wounded.

Great damage was caused to public and private property, civil infrastructure, 232 houses, 99 poles for power transmission lines, three electrical substations, water mains and gas pipelines length in kilometers were seriously damaged or destroyed. Missiles bombed schools, hospitals and other social infrastructure - schools, hospitals, and mosques. The assessment of the damage caused to civilians and to objects.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides. However, Armenia has ignored the agreement and started violating the ceasefire again.

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

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