Soldiers from Armenia and Azerbaijan clashed on Tuesday near the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. That reports news agency Reuters. Four deaths have been reported on the Armenian side, three soldiers are said to have died on the Azerbaijan side.
It is not clear what prompted the shooting. Azerbaijan’s defense ministry says their soldiers came under fire from Armenian soldiers and responded to the aggression. Conversely, Armenia says that their soldiers, who were engaged in technical work, were shot at by soldiers from Azerbaijan.
It has been unsettled for years in and around the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is internationally regarded as part of Azerbaijan, but where the majority of the inhabitants are Armenian. In 2020, Russia sent a peacekeeping force of thousands to the area after violence between the two countries escalated into a six-week war.
Tensions regularly flare up again and the parties accuse each other of blocking access to the enclave, provoking violence or direct acts of violence. Despite peace talks between the top authorities of the two countries, the situation in the area remains tense and shelling like Tuesday has become more frequent.