Armenian forces kill one Azerbaijani soldier

Ethnic Armenian forces opened fire along the cease-fire line in Nagorno-Karabakh, killing an Azerbaijani soldier and wounding another, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said Monday.

Photo: Armenian forces kill one Azerbaijani soldier

The shooting occurred Sunday morning near the village of Ashagy Abdulrakhmanly, and gunfire broke out again from the same position about 12 hours later, the ministry said.

The two countries remain at odds over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. A cease-fire agreement was reached in 1994 after six years of fighting, and the enclave is now under the control of ethnic Armenians, whose troops face Azerbaijani forces across a half-mile-wide (kilometer-wide) no man's land.

Clashes break out sporadically and the countries' presidents have traded increasingly bellicose statements since talks to resolve the enclave's status broke down in February.

Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist government last week accused Azerbaijan of violating the cease-fire and forcing the suspension of foreign monitors' activity, reports the AP.

I.L.