The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said they suffered casualties while being repelled from the outposts located at a border section in eastern Armenia. One Armenian soldier was killed and several others wounded in the gunfight, it said.
“The exchange of gunfire stopped as of 2:30 pm [local time,]” the ministry added in a statement.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said, meanwhile, that Armenian army units again fired on its troops deployed in the Kelbajar district bordering Armenia’s eastern Gegharkunik province. It did not immediately report casualties within its own ranks.
Armlur.am quoted a local government official in Gegharkunik as saying that the epicenter of the fighting was near the Armenian border village of Sotk. “They [Azerbaijani troops] tried to advance in the Sotk section but failed,” Hakob Avetian told the publication.
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces exchanged fire in the mountainous area on Wednesday and Thursday, blaming each other for the truce violations. One Azerbaijani soldier was reportedly killed and two Armenian servicemen wounded in those skirmishes.
The fighting broke out two weeks after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Sochi for talks hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The three leaders announced that they agreed to speed up preparations for demarcating the border between the two South Caucasus states.