Azerbaijan starts a new military action in Nagorno-Karabakh against Armenians

Azerbaijani forces fired on Armenian positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region on Tuesday in what it called a "anti-terrorist operation." Ethnic Armenian officials said at least two people were killed and 11 were hurt, and there was heavy artillery fire around the region's capital.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry announced the start of the operation just hours after landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region killed four troops and two civilians.

But officials in Nagorno-Karabakh who are of Armenian descent said in a statement that the region's capital, Stepanakert, and other towns were "under intense shelling."

Nagorno-Karabakh human rights ombudsman Gegham Stepanyan stated two individuals, including one child, were killed in the firing and eight of the 11 injured are youngsters.

Even though Azerbaijan said that the operation only hit military targets, the defense minister said that "humanitarian corridors" had been made so that "the population could be evacuated from the danger zone."

Since the end of a rebel war in 1994, Nagorno-Karabakh and large parts of the land around it have been controlled by ethnic Armenians. However, in 2020, Azerbaijan won a six-week war and took back the lands and parts of Nagorno-Karabakh.

There are already a lot of problems between Armenia and Russia, which has been its longtime friend. Armenia has said many times that the 3,000-strong Russian peacekeeping force wasn't able or willing to keep the road to Armenia open, even though that was part of the deal that ended the 2020 war.

Armenia also upset Russia, which has a military base in the country, by having military drills with the U.S. this month and moving closer to ratifying the Rome Convention that created the International Criminal Court, which has put Russian President Vladimir Putin on trial.