On 6 March, the press service of Armenia’s Defense Ministry reported that an Azerbaijani commando attempted a raid on one of its positions along Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan.
The statement said that the incident occurred at about 05:30, and that the Azerbaijani troops were thrown back to its starting position, suffering casualties, and leaving ammunition and a landmine detector behind.
“An analysis of the attempt shows that Azerbaijani troops had undergone special training for this sabotage attempt. It is noteworthy that a German-made mine detector was used to ensure passage through minefields. The Armenian side suffered no casualties. One soldier was lightly wounded as a result of the actions,” the ministry said.
Azerbaijan’s State Border Guard Service, whose troops protect that section of the border, denied the attempted incursion. It said that Armenian troops opened intensive fire on some of its positions from heavy machine-guns and sniper rifles early in the morning.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that “the armed forces of Armenia again blatantly violated the ceasefire regime in the direction of Gazakh region of the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border.” As a result, Orhan Nazim oglu Pashazadeh, a soldier at the border post near the village of Gushchu Ayrim, Gazakh region, was killed by the Armenian sniper fire. “This bloody incident is an intentional provocation and the full responsibility for this crime lies on the aggressor country, Armenia,” concluded the statement. Two days later, on 7 March, it was reported that another Azerbaijani soldier Garayev Eltun Elman died as a result of the fire opened from a firearm.
On 15 February the Azerbaijani MFA reported that an Azerbaijani soldier was shot dead by a sniper from the Armenian side on the eve of the meeting of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the margins of the Munich Security Conference.
The last military hostilities between the two countries were reported on 28 July 2019, when an Armenian soldier was shot dead by an Azerbaijani sniper (Caucasus Watch reported).
