Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has said that two Azerbaijani and three Armenian soldiers have been killed in clashes near the Armenia-occupied Upper (Nagorno) Karabakh region, Radio Liberty reported.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ministry blamed Yerevan for the incident, saying Armenian troops had "tried to attack Azerbaijani forces."

The leaders of the self-proclaimed Nagorno Karabakh Republic, in turn, blamed the attack on Azerbaijani "special forces." Armenian media claimed that only one Armenian soldier had been wounded in the assault.

RFE/RL's Armenian Service quoted Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian as saying Azerbaijani accounts of the incident were allegedly false. He maintained that when Armenian troops retaliated, Azerbaijani forces "fled and suffered losses in the process".

The clash is the latest outbreak of violence between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in the long-standing dispute over Nagorno Karabakh.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war over the territory that ended with an uneasy cease-fire in 1994. But its final status has never been resolved and frequent skirmishes are reported on the frontline.

The reported clash comes just ahead of a scheduled visit to Azerbaijan by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on September 2-3.

An agreement on demarcating the Russian-Azerbaijani border is expected to be at the center of Medvedev's trip. But the Russian president is also likely to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh, an issue where Moscow has sought increasing influence as a mediator, RFE/RL said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sargsyan, met for bilateral talks on Nagorno-Karabakh hosted by Medvedev in June in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

A day later, five soldiers -- four Armenian and one Azerbaijani -- were killed in a skirmish. Aliyev later declared the Azerbaijani soldier, Mubariz Ibrahimov, a national hero.

Cesur Sumerinli, the chief editor of the Azerbaijani military-analysis website mil.az, told RFE/RL that tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia has been increasing since the leaders of the two countries met in St. Petersburg in June.

"This latest violation could be connected to Medvedev's forthcoming visit. But it could also have nothing to do with it," Sumerinli said. "Generally, however, the cease-fire is being violated more and more frequently. It could result in the resumption of local [military] operations in the near future."

Medvedev's trip to Baku comes two weeks after the Russian leader visited Yerevan, where he and Sargsyan signed a deal committing Moscow to guaranteeing Armenian security on its territory. Armenian officials welcomed the deal as a pledge of Russian support should tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh escalate into full-fledged war.

Aliyev has used Azerbaijan's massive energy wealth to steadily build up his country's military and has frequently threatened to regain the occupied territories by force.

It is unclear, however, whether the Yerevan deal would obligate Russia to intervene in an armed conflict involving Nagorno-Karabakh, which is located within Azerbaijan's borders.

Casting further doubts on the Kremlin's loyalties in the region are rumors that Moscow recently sold antiaircraft missiles to Azerbaijan.