Four Armenian, One Azerbaijani Soldiers Killed in Border Clashes

(FNA)- The Azerbaijani defense ministry said in a statement on Saturday that the exchange of fire between his country's army troops and the Armenian forces in the zone of the Nagorno-Karabakh resulted in the killing of one Azeri and 4 Armenian soldiers.

“A heavy and bloody clash erupted as the Armenian forces attempted to raid on Azerbaijani positions on Friday,” the statement said.

The statement added that Azerbaijani soldier Mammadov Elshan Vaqif oglu was killed and three other were wounded as the Armenian army troops used large-caliber weapons as well as 82-mm mortar launchers.

The Azeri forces retaliated with rocket and artillery strikes against the Armenian targets, killing four soldiers and wounding 16 more.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have thus far remain officially at war over Nagorno-Karabakh and the dispute is a major source of tension in the South Caucasus region wedged between Iran, Russia and Turkey.

No country - not even Armenia - officially recognizes Karabakh as an independent state.

The mountainous region has been controlled by ethnic Armenians after a fierce war in the early 1990s that killed 30,000 people.