Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have reported casualties as a result of border clashes along sections of the border.
The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence announced in a statement earlier today (17 November) that seven servicemen had been killed, with a further 10 wounded “during military operations after Armenia's provocations on the state border on November 16”.
The ministry listed the names of the deceased as: Umud Niftaliyev; Orkhan Jabbarov; Natig Aliyev; Elchin Aghayev; Emin Alizade; Elchin Aliyev; Murad Khalilov as servicemen. The statement added that “the military and political leadership of Armenia is fully responsible for the tension and confrontation caused by Armenia's provocation”.
For its part, the Armenian MOD announced that it had killed up to 70 Azerbaijani servicemen, and had inflicted significant losses to military equipment. The Armenian MOD also said that it had suffered one casualty, with a further 13 of its military personnel captured by Azerbaijan. Additionally, it noted that the fate of the 24 servicemen who were still missing was unknown. Finally, the ministry added that two military bases had “come under the control of the enemy”. Some news sources are reporting that the number of Armenian casualties is much higher. Citing Armenian government sources, CivilNet stated that at least 15 servicemen had lost their lives.
These casualties follow days of escalating tensions over a series of border incidents.