Azerbaijan says Armenia shelled second city
An Armenian government video shows the aftermath of what it says is shelling by Azerbaijan's forces on the Nagorno Karabakh capital Stepanakert but intensifying violence has now also spread beyond the border of the breakaway region.
On Sunday (October 4) Azerbaijan accused Armenian forces of shelling its second city, Ganja - escalating the conflict that broke out a week ago.
The Azeri foreign ministry said one civilian had died and four were injured and an aide to President Ilham Aliyev said military targets from which Armenia is firing on Azeri cities would be destroyed.
Armenia denies directing fire "of any kind" towards Azerbaijan but the leader of Nagorno Karabakh said his forces had destroyed a military airbase inside Ganja and would target Azeri cities.
Armenia says the airport at Ganja has been used as a base for Azeri warplanes to carry out bombing raids on Nagorno Karabakh - an ethnic Armenian region that broke away from Azerbaijan in a 1990s war but that is not recognized by any country as an independent republic.
Azerbaijan is supported by Turkey, which on Sunday condemned Armenian targeting of Azeri civilians, while Armenia has a defense pact with Russia.
Despite appeals for a ceasefire from Russia, the US, France and the EU, fighting has increased and Azerbaijan said on Saturday (October 3) that it had captured a string of villages.
Both sides accuse the other of targeting civilians, and casualties have run into the hundreds - though precise figures are impossible to obtain.
The clashes are the worst since the 1990s, when some 30,000 people were killed and carry with them the risk of full-scale war between the former Soviet republics that could drag in other powers.
