Armenia launches missile attacks on Azerbaijan's Ganja

By Ruslan Rehimov

BAKU (AA) - Civilians in Azerbaijan's second-largest city, Ganja, were hit hard by missile attacks by the Armenian army, a top Azerbaijani official said Saturday.

“Innocent civilians in the second biggest city of Azerbaijan are under the indiscriminate and targeted missile attack of Armenia,” Hikmet Hajiyev, assistant to the Azerbaijani president, said on Twitter.

“Unscrupulous calls for humanitarian ceasefire should see these war crimes of Armenia,” he said.

More than 20 houses were destroyed, according to preliminary information, he added.

The Armenian army also launched missile attacks on Mingachevir.

- Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Recent clashes erupted between the two countries Sept. 27, and since then, Armenia has continued its attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces.

Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's Office said Friday that at least 47 civilians were killed and 222 injured because of new Armenian attacks.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

The OSCE Minsk Group – co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994. Multiple UN resolutions, as well as international organizations, demand the withdrawal of the occupying forces.

World powers, including Russia, France, and the US, have urged a new cease-fire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defense and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.

About 20% of Azerbaijan's territory has remained under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar