Nagorno-Karabakh truce crumbling as warring sides allege attacks

Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other of serious violations and crimes against civilians, and Azerbaijan also said it had launched air raids as a humanitarian ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh that came into effect on Saturday appeared increasingly frayed. The Russian-brokered ceasefire, clinched after 10 hours of talks in Moscow, was meant to halt fighting to allow ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azeri forces to swap prisoners and war dead under the mediation of the Red Cross. The talks were the first diplomatic contact between the two since fighting over the mountainous enclave erupted on September 27, leaving hundreds of people dead. Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians. Both sides accused the others of breaking the ceasefire almost immediately, and Azerbaijan gave the impression, in public comments from top officials, that it had only viewed it as a brief breathing space. Azerbaijan, making the first claim of an attack since the truce, said on Sunday it had carried out air raids against an ethnic Armenian regiment, inflicting heavy losses. Reuters could not independently verify that claim. A spokesman for the leader of Nagorno-Karabakh told Reuters News Agency he did not have information about the alleged attack. Earlier on Sunday, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of heavily shelling a residential area in Ganja, its second-largest city, in the early hours of the morning, and of hitting an apartment building. The Azeri Prosecutor General’s Office said nine people had been killed and 34 wounded in the attack. Reuters could not independently verify Azeri assertions about the number of deaths or injuries. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">