BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) - Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry says it has removed the bodies of five of its soldiers who were killed in fighting on the fringes of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan, but since a separatist war ended in 1994 it has been under the control of forces that claim to be local ethnic Armenians but that Azerbaijan claims include regular Armenian military. Efforts to negotiate a settlement have failed, and frequent clashes have continued.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said it lost five servicemen in the weekend clash. The Nagorno-Karabakh separatist authorities said its forces didn’t suffer any losses.
The bodies were recovered Monday via the mediation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has served as a peace broker in the conflict.
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