Armenia and Azerbaijan have accused each other of provoking a shootout along their troubled border before the arch-foes were to hold US-mediated peace talks.
The incident came on Monday, hours before a meeting in Washington of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov for another round of peace talks hosted by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In the early hours of Monday, Azerbaijani forces opened fire on Armenian positions “in the eastern sector of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border”, the defence ministry in Yerevan said in a statement.
The statement said there were “no casualties, and the situation on the frontline was relatively stable” on Monday morning.
Azerbaijan’s defence ministry for its part accused Armenian forces of shooting at the positions of Azerbaijani troops stationed at several locations on the frontier.
