The number of soldiers of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic killed in the ongoing military action on the contact line with Azerbaijan has surpassed 100, local authorities reported on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st October, 2020) The number of soldiers of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic killed in the ongoing military action on the contact line with Azerbaijan has surpassed 100, local authorities reported on Wednesday.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry has released a list of 23 names of soldiers killed most recently. This adds to the list of 80 casualties reported earlier.
The new list includes ethnic Russian pilot Valery Danelin, the pilot of the Armenian Su-25 plane down by a Turkish F-16 jet in Armenia's airspace, as reported by Yerevan.
The Nagorno-Karabakh army's news center Armenian Unified Infocenter also tracks and reports the toll of Azerbaijani military vehicles and hardware destroyed in the fighting � as of 7 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT), it lists 83 combat drones, 166 armored vehicles, seven helicopters, one fighter jet and one Smerch multiple rocket launcher.
According to the same update, published on Facebook, Azerbaijan also lost 920 fighters.
On Sunday, Azerbaijan launched what it called a "counteroffensive" against its breakaway Armenian-majority Nagorno-Karabakh autonomy, presently the de facto Republic of Artsakh. Authorities of the self-proclaimed republic said that the shelling targeted civilian settlements, particularly the capital of Stepanakert.
Artsakh and Armenia, which has backed its independence aspirations since the early 1990s, have declared martial law and general mobilization, accusing Azerbaijan of initiating the fighting and breaking the 1994 ceasefire. Azerbaijan, too, declared partial martial law and partial mobilization and shut down its airports to all international traffic except for Turkey, which has pledged support to Baku.
The escalation triggered a broad international backlash, prompting numerous countries and organizations to call on the warring parties to cease fire and return to OSCE-chaired negotiations. Calls were also voiced upon Turkey to refrain from interference.
