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Azerbaijani authorities said that nine civilians were killed and more than 30 others wounded after Armenian forces fired missiles at Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, and hit a residential building.
The city of Mingachevir also came under missile attacks, according to Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s office.
Nagorno-Karabakh’s military officials denied attacking Ganja and said the territory’s army is observing the ceasefire.
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The recent bout of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces started September 27 and left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since a separatist war there ended in 1994.
The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia.
The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a truce in Moscow after Russian President Vladimir Putin had brokered it in a series of calls with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
The ceasefire took effect at noon Saturday, after talks in Moscow that were sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The deal stipulated that the ceasefire should pave the way for talks on settling the conflict.
If the truce had held, it would have marked a major diplomatic coup for Russia, which has a security pact with Armenia but also cultivated warm ties with Azerbaijan.
However, minutes after the cease-fire took force, both sides accused each other of continuing attacks in violation Azerbaijan, Armenia, Ceasefire, Russia, Nagorno-Karabakhof the deal.
The situation in the region was “relatively calm” on Sunday morning, according to Nagorno-Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan, with only minor hostilities along the front line. But it was unclear whether the calm would last, he said.
“There is no shelling from our towns and villages. At the frontline, there is some shooting with the use of artillery. There are some skirmishes on the border,” Harutyunyan said. “Since the morning, it seems calm, but within minutes the situation can change.”
Nagorno-Karabakh’s army in a statement Sunday promised a “disproportionately harsh” response if Azerbaijan “continues to violate the cease-fire.”
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said that “the political and military leadership of Armenia bears the responsibility for the aggravation of the situation in the region.”
Azerbaijan’s president said in an interview with a Russian news outlet that “if the Armenian side is committed to the ceasefire regime … the phase of political settlement will begin.”