Baku Releases Video Allegedly Showing Destruction of Armenian Rocket Launcher Systems in Karabakh

Earlier in the day, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev demanded that Yerevan withdraw its forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh region as soon as possible, threatening to "go all the way" if his demand is not met.

Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defence has released footage allegedly showing its air force destroying Armenian BM-21 Grad (also known under NATO codename M1964) multiple rocket launcher systems. The video shows combat vehicles that look like BM-21 Grads being targeted by an undefined aerial vehicle, with one of them appearing to release large amounts of black smoke at the end of the footage.

The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence claims that the Armenian rocket systems had been shooting at Azerbaijan forces in the town of Zangilan, located to the southwest of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. In addition to this, Baku earlier reported destroying several Armenian trucks purportedly carrying ammunition, and boasted of having taken control over the settlement of Guidjag settlement near the recently captured city of Jabrayil in the south of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia and the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh republic on the one side and Azerbaijan on the other have been engaged in a military conflict since late September after years of upholding a ceasefire signed after a bloody war in the 1990s. The sides have since tried to arrange a humanitarian truce twice, but both times it was violated soon after taking effect.

Baku has been fighting to reclaim its sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, ever since it proclaimed independence after the dissolution of the USSR. Armenia, however, stopped short of officially recognising the breakaway region.