Agdam incidents on 26 December 2018

On 26 December apparently two incidents took place: Baku claims Armenian’s opened fire on a cemetery near the village of Mireşelli, wounding an elderly woman; Stepanakert on the other hand claims there was a shootout at an Azeri military outpost between Azeri soldiers in the same area that resulted in either injury or death. The Azeri Defence Ministry refuted Armenian claims of an incident occuring at its military outposts, stating that such claims are the result of  chaos in the Armenian military.

The incidents took place  in an area quite active in the past in terms of border skirmishes. The Azeri Armed Forces have carried out numerous projects in the area lengthening  and creating new trench systems, the majority which occured between 2007-2009. The average distance between trenches in this segment of the line of contact is 500 metres. The area was of strategic importance during the war in the 1990s,  due to the fact that it provided the Azeri side a gateway towards Stepanakert. It was subsequently taken by the Armenian side to stop artillery barrages on the capital and nearby villages between 1993-1994.

The two sides have accused eachother of ceasfire violations these past days, however no direct footage of either incident has shown up, possibly amounting to means to discredit the opposite side.

 

Approximate area of the reported incidents on 26 December 2018

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