Azeri troops have killed 18 Armenian soldiers, President Serzh Sarkisian said today, after heavy fighting erupted over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh region.
"From our side 18 soldiers were killed and some 35 others wounded," Sarkisian said in a televised statement.
He did not specify if the soldiers belonged to Yerevan-backed separatist forces in Karabakh or Armenia's armed forces.
Earlier today Azerbaijan's defence ministry said that 12 its soldiers were killed in Karabakh and a military helicopter was shot down.
The surge in fighting over the disputed territory -- which separatist Armenian-backed forces captured from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s -- reportedly also claimed the lives of one Armenian and one Azeri civilian after the arch foes accused each other of unleashing heavy weaponry across the volatile frontline.
Ethnic Armenian separatists seized control of the mountainous Nagorny Karabakh region in an early 1990s war that claimed some 30,000 lives and the two sides have never signed a peace deal despite a 1994 ceasefire.
The two sides frequently exchange fire across the front but the latest episode has marked a surge in violence and sparked appeals for peace from international powers.
