BAKU (Sputnik) – The fighting in the area erupted on April 2, with Azerbaijan and Armenia trading blame for violating the ceasefire in place since 1994.
“The Azerbaijani Army has carried out precision strikes against a military base headquarters located in the village of Madagiz…and destroyed it. On the evening of April 4, three Armenian tanks and their crew were destroyed,” Dargahli told RIA Novosti.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman also said that that the country's armed forces have destroyed approximately 20 pieces of Armenian military hardware and killed at least 70 Armenian soldiers in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the past 24 hours while having lost 16 Azerbaijani soldiers in the past 48 hours.
“Over the last two days, the Azerbaijani Army has lost 16 people. The Azerbaijani Armed Forces have killed up to 70 Armenian soldiers and destroyed up to 20 pieces of Armenian military hardware from the evening of April 4 to the morning of April 5,” Dargahli told RIA Novosti.
#AzerbaijaniArmy eliminates #Armenia’s manpower of #70People https://t.co/8ZGkKJBMRK #KarabakNow #Karabakh #armenia pic.twitter.com/UwAOGdao9g
— Virtual Karabakh (@virtualkarabakh) April 5, 2016
Earlier in the day, the Defense Ministry spokesman said that Baku reiterated its threats to attack Hankendi (Stepanakert), the capital of the self-proclaimed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, should the Armenian army continue to carry out artillery strikes against settlements on the territory of Azerbaijan.
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before the latter proclaimed independence following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
