9 die, 34 injured in Armenian attack on civilians in Azerbaijan

The death toll in an Armenian missile attack on Azerbaijan’s Ganja city, that happened after the agreed ceasefire, rose to 9 with 34 injured on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency. 

Azerbaijan Prosecutors Office, in a written statement, announced that casualties included 4 women, also among the injured, there were 16 women and 6 children.

The Armenian attacks continued despite a humanitarian cease-fire agreed for the exchange of prisoners and retrieval of bodies in Nagorno-Karabakh, which came into force at 12 p.m. local time (0800GMT) on Saturday.

The truce came after a trilateral meeting in Moscow on Friday between the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

The Azerbaijani army suppressed attempted attacks by Armenia throughout the night, said the country’s Defense Ministry in a statement on Sunday.

The prosecutors' office also said the number of civilians that were killed by Armenian forces' attacks, between September 27 - October 11, rose to 41.

The statement said the number of injured people rose to 205. The attacks destroyed 1165 houses, 57 buildings, 146 public buildings, it added. 

Fightings began on Sept. 27, when Armenian forces targeted civilian Azerbaijani settlements and military positions in the region, leading to casualties.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as many international organizations, demand the withdrawal of the occupying forces.

The OSCE Minsk Group -- co-chaired by France, Russia, and the US -- was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A cease-fire, however, was agreed to in 1994.

Many world powers, including Russia, France and the US, have urged an immediate cease-fire.