BAKU (Sputnik) – An Armenian command headquarters post has been destroyed on the front line of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry press spokesman Vagif Dargahli said Monday.
“An Armenian Armed Forces command headquarters post has been destroyed on the front line. Generals, colonels, and other high-ranking officers from the Armenian side have been killed. We will release a video with proof soon,” Dargahli told RIA Novosti.
However, the defense ministry of the de facto independent republic of Nagorno-Karabakh has refuted the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman's claims.
“We’re waiting for the video proof that the Azerbaijani side has spoken of. What are they imagining if there has been no destruction of a command HQ at all? And to speak of the deaths of generals and colonels is completely excessive,” Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry press spokesman Senor Asratyan told RIA Novosti.
Asratyan said that a drone was launched from the Azerbaijani side and that it could bring damage, “but our military shot it down.”
The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991. In September 2015, the conflict escalated, with the sides blaming each other for breaching the truce.
