Nagorno-Karabakh clashes continue, prompting emergency UN talks

Armenia and Azerbaijan have reported further bloodshed in Nagorno-Karabakh as the worst spate of fighting since the 1990s raged for a third day in the region, and as heavy weaponry was moved to the front lines. Dozens have been reported killed and hundreds wounded since clashes between Azerbaijan and its ethnic Armenian mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh broke out on Sunday, in a new eruption of a decades-old conflict. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said 10 civilians had been killed by Armenian shelling since Sunday. There was no official information about casualties among Azeri servicemen. Armenia’s defence ministry said an Armenian civilian bus in Vardenis – an Armenian border town far from Nagorno-Karabakh – caught fire after being hit by an Azeri drone, but no one appeared to be hurt. It said it was making further checks. “Both sides are making the claim that the other is using high-grade sophisticated weaponry,” Al Jazeera’s Robin Forestier-Walker reported from Georgia. “International monitors are saying this is the worst fighting since 1994, which is an indication of the modern weaponry that is being deployed. “The Azeri authorities are giving much more specific information about what territories they have seized, or claiming to have seized, while the Armenian side is being a lot more specific about the casualties that they have sustained and the number of Azeri servicemen they have killed.” Renewed violence has reignited concern over stability in the South Caucasus region, a corridor for pipelines carrying oil and gas to world markets. On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation of the conflict in phone calls with the countries’ leaders. Separately, the UN Security Council is expected to hold emergency talks behind closed doors later on Tuesday, at 21:00 GMT, after France and Germany led a push for the issue to be placed on the agenda. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">