Seven die, 33 injured in Armenian attack on civilians, says Azerbaijan

GANJA/BAKU (Azerbaijan), Oct 11 -- At least seven civilians have been killed, and 33 injured in an Armenian missile attack on Azerbaijan’s Ganja city, violating a temporary ceasefire on humanitarian grounds, reported Anadolu Agency (AA) according to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on Sunday.

The ministry said in a Twitter statement that seven people were killed and 33 injured as a result of a missile attack that occurred at approximately 02:00 local time on Sunday (2200 GMT on Saturday) in the city of Ganja, which is far off from the conflict zone.

The missiles launched by Armenia hit civilian settlements in Ganja city, according to the statement.

The Armenian attacks continued despite a humanitarian ceasefire agreed for the exchange of prisoners and retrieval of bodies in Nagorno-Karabakh, which came into force at 12 pm local time (0800 GMT) on Saturday.

The truce came after a trilateral meeting in Moscow on Friday between the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

Earlier in the day, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said Armenia is “grossly” violating the ceasefire agreement by trying to mount attacks.

The Azerbaijani army suppressed attempted attacks by Armenia throughout the night, said the country’s Defence Ministry in a statement on Sunday.

“The units of the Armenian armed forces, which did not comply with the humanitarian truce, have concentrated their forces and military equipment and again attempted to attack in small groups in the Hadrut and Jabrayil directions in order to regain their lost positions,” it noted.

It said the Azerbaijani military suppressed all enemy attacks by fire.

-- BERNAMA