MNA – Four Armenian soldiers were killednbsp;on Wednesday by Azerbaijani fire in Nagorno-Karabakh, said separatist authorities in the breakaway region, which has been at the centre of a decades-long territorial dispute between the Caucasus enemies.
On Wednesday morning, quot;units of the Azerbaijani armed forces opened artillery firequot; on Armenian positions, the Artsakh Defense Army said, adding there were quot;four servicemen who were killed in action as a result of another provocation bynbsp;Azerbaijanquot;.
In a later statement the group said that the situation along the border was now quot;relatively stablequot;.
The news came as the United States mediates three days of new peace talks betweennbsp;Armenianbsp;and Azerbaijan, in its latest attempt to quell a conflict that has flared repeatedly.
Secretary of Statenbsp;Antony Blinkennbsp;opened closed-door talks with the adversaries#39; foreign ministers just outside Washington on Tuesday, in the second such negotiation session he has led in as many months.
Russia has historically been the mediator between the two former Soviet republics but the United States and European Union have been increasingly active as Moscow gets bogged down in its invasion of Ukraine.
Armenia has repeatedly accused Russian peacekeepers of failing to live up to promises to protect ethnic Armenians in line with a 2020 ceasefire negotiated by Moscow after six weeks of fighting left thousands dead.
Russia last week pressed Azerbaijan to let traffic through the Lachin corridor that links Armenia tonbsp;Nagorno-Karabakhnbsp;– a predominantly ethnic Armenian area effectively controlled by Yerevan since war during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Azerbaijan had blocked access for convoys delivering aid to Karabakh, raising concerns of shortages of food and medicine.
Azerbaijan has insisted that civilians and aid convoys can travel through.
(AFP)
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