UPDATE - Azerbaijan shoots down 4 Armenian drones

UPDATES WITH MORE DRONES DESTROYED, CHANGES HEADLINE, LEDE, DECK, EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Havva Kara Aydin

BAKU (AA) - Azerbaijan on Wednesday shot down four Armenian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the country’s Defense Ministry said.

“On October 21, from 12:55 to 13:30 [0855-0930GMT], Azerbaijan Air Defense Units determined and destroyed three more tactical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the Armenian armed forces,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The two UAVs were destroyed in the Fizuli direction, and one in the Terter [Tartar] direction of the front,” it added.

In an earlier statement, the ministry said: “On October 21, at about 12:00 [0800GMT], Azerbaijan Air Defense Units destroyed another UAV of the Armenian armed forces in the Horadiz direction.”

The forces had also destroyed two Armenian drones on Tuesday, one over Azerbaijan’s second-largest city of Ganja and the other over the Goranboy region, according to the ministry.

In less than two weeks, Armenia has violated two humanitarian cease-fires in Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

A new humanitarian cease-fire entered into force last Saturday.

Four UN Security Council resolutions and two from the UN General Assembly, as well as international organizations, demand the “immediate complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces” from occupied Azerbaijani territory.

In total, about 20% of Azerbaijan's territory – including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions – has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (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.

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