Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an end to fighting after clashes broke out in the disputed Caucasus region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
TV pictures showed a burned out vehicle and craters after a night of gunfire and heavy shelling.
Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other of starting the fighting, with both sides reporting casualties.
Nagorno-Karabakh has been in the hands of ethnic Armenian separatists since a war that ended in 1994.
Azerbaijan said its armed forces came under fire first from large-calibre artillery and grenade-launchers. The Armenian government said Azerbaijan started the fighting with tanks, artillery, and helicopters.
The Nagorno-Karabakh military said Armenian anti-aircraft fire had shot down an Azeri helicopter, but Azerbaijan denied this, Reuters news agency reported.
Similar violence was reported last month.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Shoigu has spoken with his Armenian and Azeri counterparts – Seyran Ohanyan and Zakir Hasanov – by phone, urging them to calm the situation, Interfax reported.
Fighting between the two sides began in the late 1980s and escalated into full-scale war in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsed, killing about 30,000 people before a ceasefire in 1994.
The region, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by ethnic Armenians, has since run its own affairs with Armenian military and financial backing.
[Source:- BBC]
