Azerbaijan says Armenian forces shell second metropolis of Ganja

YEREVAN/BAKU, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan said on Sunday that Armenian military had shelled its second metropolis of Ganja in a most fundamental unique escalation of the battle in the South Caucasus.

Armenia denied that it fired in direction of Azerbaijan, however the leader of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave interior Azerbaijan, said his forces had destroyed a defense force airbase positioned in Ganja.

“Everlasting defense force models positioned in the mountainous cities of Azerbaijan from now on changed into the targets of the defence military,” said Karabakh leader Arayik Harutyunyan.

The Azeri defence ministry said the cities of Terter and Horadiz shut to the de-facto border with Nagorno-Karabakh were below heavy shelling, whereas the breakaway enviornment’s defense force said its capital, Stepanakert, used to be below bombardment.

The combating began per week previously and has surged to its worst level for the reason that 1990s, when some 30,000 folk were killed.

The battle risks dragging in assorted regional powers equivalent to Russia and Turkey and disrupting vitality affords via the South Caucasus, where pipelines carry Azeri oil and gas to world markets. (Reporting by Nvard Hovhannisyan and Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze; Modifying by Imprint Trevelyan and Toby Chopra)