Armenian servicemen ‘planned to blow up Azeri school’
BAKU – The Armenian servicemen that attempted to infiltrate into Azerbaijan last Saturday across the contact line of the two countries’ troops planned to stage an explosion in an Azerbaijani school, said one of the saboteurs who was seized.
Manvel Saribekyan, who was nabbed by Azerbaijan’s armed forces while trying to escape, told the Baku-based ANS TV channel that the Armenian serviceman had been trained for two months to stage the attack.
"There were seven or eight young men like me there. We were drilled on how to shoot, on the rules of handling hand grenades and ways of staging explosions. Together with four others, we were taken to a forest referred to as Shamsaddin. From there, we were to head to the Zamanly village, blow up the school and come back."
Azerbaijani soldiers prevented the Armenian infiltration attempt, but the other three intruders managed to escape.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict for two decades. OSCE-brokered peace talks kicked off after a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a shaky cease-fire in 1994. Armenian armed forces continue to occupy over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory.