Armenian troops killed in Azerbaijan border clash

A number of Armenian soldiers have been killed and captured in a flare-up of violence on the border with Azerbaijan.

Armenia said some of its troops had been killed and two combat positions had been lost, while Azerbaijan said two of its soldiers were wounded.

Azerbaijan made big gains in a six-week war fought last year over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Tensions have remained since the conflict ended in a shaky peace deal brokered by Russia.

On Tuesday Armenia asked Russia, a key security ally with long-standing ties to the former Soviet republic, to help defend its territorial sovereignty against Azerbaijan.

Armenia blamed Azerbaijani troops for the latest outbreak of fighting and said 12 soldiers had been captured. It did not immediately confirm details of casualties but the head of parliament's foreign relations committee, Eduard Aghajanyan, said as many as 15 soldiers may have died.

Azerbaijan said its forces had responded to an Armenian attack on its positions.

Its defence ministry said Armenia "launched a sudden military operation" to "take more advantageous positions" in regions on its eastern border with Azerbaijan.

But according to Armenia's foreign ministry, Azerbaijani forces attacked the eastern border as part of a policy that began in May aimed at infiltrating two Armenian areas - Syunik in the south-east and Gegharkunik in the east.

Armenia's defence ministry said the situation on the eastern border remained "extremely tense".

The Armenian government in Yerevan has appealed to Russia and the rest of the international community to help secure a withdrawal of Azerbaijani forces.

Responding to Tuesday's border clashes, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, urged the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to negotiate a "full ceasefire".

Mr Michel said he called for an "urgent de-escalation" in discussions with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

The November 2020 peace deal came after a war in which more than 6,000 people were killed. Some 2,000 Russian peacekeepers were deployed to patrol the area in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

After independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Armenia was drawn into a bloody conflict with Azerbaijan over the mainly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh region. It is recognised as part of Azerbaijan, but it is controlled by ethnic Armenians.

Clashes in and around Nagorno-Karabakh have been the trigger for violence in the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Armenia is majority Christian while Azerbaijan is majority Muslim. Turkey has close ties to Azerbaijan, while Russia is allied with Armenia.