Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has announced that the enemy, upon incursion into Azerbaijani territory, must be destroyed by any and all means under guidance of Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov.

Vagif Dargahli, the spokesman for the defense ministry, told Trend that this is why the Azerbaijani Armed Forces inflicted crushing blows to the enemy on August 22.

Violating the ceasefire agreement with Azerbaijan again on the evening of August 22, the Armenian military fired at Azerbaijani positions in the direction of Aghdam and Khojavand on the frontline using the 60 mm and 82 mm caliber rocket-propelled grenades and large-caliber machine guns.

The ministry said although the Armenian side again attempted to hide its losses from the public, 5 enemy soldiers were killed and 8 were injured, according to the obtained information.

Dargahli said the fighting spirit and the will to win of the Azerbaijani army personnel are at a high.

On August 23, truce violations reached their peak as the most recent wave as the Armenian troops shattered the ceasefire 173 times at different locations.

“As a result, the enemy suffered losses. But the enemy was trying to hide the losses, as always. Five soldiers of the Armenian armed forces were killed and eight wounded, according to our information. On our side, three soldiers were injured. The reason for the lack of losses and a small number of the injured is strict compliance of personnel with the safety rules,” Dargahli said.

He noted that it would be wrong to link the current events on the contact line with the ones that happened last year.

“We constantly observe diversions of the Armenians not only during summer, but since the beginning of the year until today as well. The tension on the contact line of troops has always existed. Armenian armed forces always violated the ceasefire. In recent years, Armenia started to increase the ceasefire violations, as evidenced by official messages of the press service of the ministry,” Dargahli said.

The situation on the contact line of Armenian-Azerbaijani troops remains tense despite a ceasefire agreement that the sides signed in 1994.

“The enemy has felt our strikes. Recently, the enemy began to use large-caliber weapons, and now 60 mm and 82 mm mortars are used. Therefore, a massive retaliatory mortar and artillery fire attack on the predetermined directions on the frontline and in the rear of the enemy was launched on time, including on the positions, posts, trenches, lines of communication,” Dargahli said.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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