Azerbaijani authorities disclosed for the first time on Thursday details of the country’s military casualties in the recent fighting with Armenian forces over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was halted last month by a Russian-brokered truce.
Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said that 2,783 troops were killed during the 44 days of intense clashes, and 103 of them are yet to be identified. More than 100 servicemen are considered to be unaccounted for, the ministry said, and 1,245 are currently undergoing treatment in medical facilities.
President Ilham Aliyev said earlier this week that 94 Azerbaijani civilians were also killed and 400 more have been wounded. On Thursday, he signed a decree ordering a moment of silence at 12:00 p.M. (0800 GMT) on Friday to honor the victims of the fighting.
Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. That war left Nagorno-Karabakh itself and substantial surrounding territory in Armenian hands.
Heavy fighting erupted in late September, marking the biggest escalation of a long-simmering conflict between the two ex-Soviet nations. AP