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As tensions escalated in Yerevan, the defense ministry said Armenian firing points, combat assets and military facilities were the targets.
Azerbaijan has launched so-called “counter-terrorist operations” in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, its defense ministry said, stressing that the offensive would only target military structures.
“The local anti-terrorist activities carried out by the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan continue,” read a statement by the Ministry of Defense published on Tuesday.
“As part of the activities, only legitimate military installations and infrastructure were targeted and nothing was done with high-precision weapons,” it added.
An AFP news agency reporter said the explosions were heard in the region’s de facto capital, known as Stepanakert to Armenians and Khankendi to Azerbaijanis.
The statement came hours after the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said at least six people were killed in two separate accidents in the Azeri Khojavend district allegedly caused by landmines placed by Armenian security forces. .
The region has long been at the center of tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia, leading to two wars for its control. Currently, the region is recognized worldwide as part of Azerbaijan but it is mostly inhabited by ethnic Armenians.
The last major conflict erupted in 2020 and lasted six weeks before a Russian-brokered truce. The ceasefire saw Armenia hand over parts of the territory it had controlled since the 1990s.
The two sides have not been able to reach a lasting peace settlement despite the mediation efforts of the European Union, Russia and the United States.
Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of causing a month-long humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku last year blocked the only road linking Armenia’s mountainous region. It’s called the Lachin corridor, and it’s guarded by Russian peacekeepers.
On Monday, trucks full of humanitarian aid entered Nagorno-Karabakh after Armenian separatists and the central government agreed to use roads linking it to Armenia and Azerbaijan, according to Baku.
