Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on Friday that Azerbaijani troops have liberated the strategic heights around Madagiz after heavy fighting.
The ministry added that the Azerbaijani troops advanced in the direction of Jabrayil and Fuzuli, the occupied territories around Nagorno-Karabakh, while reporting casualties among civilians in Aghdam.
Local sources add that battles are also going on in Khankendi (Stepanakert) and that 10 people were injured from the “Karabakh rescue service”, according to the Armenian Unified Information Center reports.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has not yet commented on this.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly stated that it does not target residents and civilian objects.
Fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces entered its sixth day on Friday in the biggest escalation of violence since a 1994 ceasefire.
Over one hundred people including civilians have died and many more have been injured in the clashes that started on Sunday.
The villages of Barda, Tovuz, Aghdam and Shamkir, far beyond Nagorno-Karabakh_ are under “heavy artillery fire”, the defense ministry stated early Friday.
It came a day after France, Russia and the United States called for an immediate ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, and urged the sides to return to negotiations without delay.
“We call for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the relevant military forces,” the French, Russia and U.S. presidents said in a joint statement in their capacity as co-chairs of the Organization for Security and Co-operation’s (OSCE) Minsk Group.
“We also call on the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to commit without delay to resuming substantive negotiations, in good faith and without preconditions, under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.”
Armenia said on Friday it would work with the Minsk group sides on renewing a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh as the death toll rose in the region.
Azerbaijan ruled out the talks while its strategic ally Turkey said the three big powers had wasted their role to settle the conflict.
The region of Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, was declared independent by ethnic Armenians living there as the Soviet Union collapsed. An estimated 30,000 were killed when the conflict turned into a full-fledged war,. A ceasefire signed in 1994 under the auspices of Moscow put a fragile end to a large-scale conflict. Peace talks mediated by France, US and Russia were unsuccessful and since then, conflict is volatile, with flare-ups sporadically occurring.
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