Heavy fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh

[GhostZ06]

Wait wtf?

At least 30 soldiers and a boy were reported killed as heavy fighting erupted Saturday between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The fighting was the worst outbreak since a full-scale war over the region ended in 1994. Since then, mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh — officially part of Azerbaijan — has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military.

Armenian forces also occupy several areas outside Nagorno-Karabakh proper. The sides are separated by a demilitarized buffer zone, but small clashes have broken out frequently.

Each side blamed the other for Saturday's escalation.

In a statement, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said 12 of its soldiers "became shahids" — Muslim martyrs — and said one of its helicopters was shot down.

The statement also claimed that more than 100 Armenian forces were killed or wounded and that six tanks and 15 artillery positions were destroyed.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan told his national security council that 18 Armenian soldiers were killed and 35 wounded.

Armenia earlier claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on Azerbaijani forces, but did not immediately give figures. A statement from the Nagorno-Karabakh defense ministry claimed more than 200 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed, but there was no corroboration for that figure.

"This is the most wide-scale military action that Azerbaijan has tried to carry out since the establishment of the 1994 cease-fire regime," Sargsyan said.

David Babayan, a spokesman for Nagorno-Karabakh's separatist president, said a boy of about 12 was killed and two other children were wounded in a Grad missile barrage by Azerbaijani forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin urged all sides to cease firing and "show restraint," Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Russia's foreign and defense ministers contacted their Azerbaijani and Armenian counterparts in hopes of stabilizing the situation, the ministries said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International...ting-nagorno-karabakh-helicopter-hit-38102214

 

[GhostZ06]

https://twitter.com/taylieli

twitter reports here,

 

[GhostZ06]

 

[uncommon]

laymans summary for the average american?

 

[GhostZ06]

laymans summary for the average american?

Armenia and Azerbaijani are at war.

 

[JDragon]

Maybe we can merge? There is a thread on this on Page 2 or so.

 

[LC Shepard]

My Armenian friend is raging about this on FB. I, being the lazy ass that I am, have not had the chance to properly research this regions history of conflict and who's at fault.

 

[lapollarecords]

my brain says probably no side is free from blame, but personally I can't help but heavily root for Armenia against turkish/azeris.

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

We've been having a good discussion here:

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/conflict-in-nagorno-karabakh-re-escalates.3213221/

 

[GhostZ06]

We've been having a good discussion here:

http://forums.sherdog.com/threads/conflict-in-nagorno-karabakh-re-escalates.3213221/

hmmm yeah ill need a merge