Armenia says it is ready to work for a ceasefire
After several days of constant attacks between the two sides, Yerevan has said it is prepared to work with international mediators to reach a ceasefire with Azerbaijan.
In a statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said it was "ready" to engage with France, Russia and the United States - which co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group - "to re-establish a ceasefire regime", although the statement added that "this aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh will continue to receive our firm and resolute response".
On Friday afternoon Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, came under artillery fire from Azerbaijan, whose army continued its offensive against the positions of the Armenian forces. The AFP agency reported that after intermittent bombing during the day, Stepanakert was subjected to heavy bombing at night with local residents hiding in shelters and some fleeing the city.
"There will be a proportionate response, the Aliev family will be held responsible", alarmed Vagram Pogosian, spokesman for the president of Nagorno-Karabakh, in reference to the Azeri president, Ilham Aliev and his wife Mehirban.
This is the second major attack on the capital of the area between Baku and Yerevan since a new scale of violence erupted last weekend.
The attack resulted in ten people injured and serious damage to the headquarters of the Artsaj Rescue Services (the Armenian name for the enclave), according to the United Information Centre of Armenia.
According to the Efe agency, the Azerbaijani army attacked the bridge over the Hakari River, which links Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, and hammered the town of Gadrut twice with missile launchers, injuring five civilians.
Azerbaijan has not reported any military casualties, but said 19 civilians were killed in the Armenian bombings. On Friday Armenia shot down two Azerbaijani planes over Karabakh.
Since last Sunday, the attacks and bombings have claimed almost 200 lives, including more than 30 civilians.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has accused Turkey, which supports Azerbaijan, of sending "jihadist" militants from Syria, which both Ankara and Baku deny.
The Syrian Human Rights Observatory, based in London, reported that at least 28 Syrian rebel fighters had died in clashes, claiming that there were over 850 combatants.
Ankara is Azerbaijan's biggest supporter on the international stage, while Moscow has a military base in Armenia. Armenia has accused the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan of supplying fighting, driving them out of northern Syria.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, expressed "serious concern" about these reports on Friday, according to a statement from the Kremlin.
"Both sides expressed serious concern about reports of involvement in military actions by illegal armed groups in the Middle East," the statement said after a phone call between the two leaders.
So far, neither country has been able to establish a military advantage that could translate into progress on the battlefield. However, both have declared martial law and have begun to mobilise their armed forces, with the risk of an intensification of the fighting.
Azerbaijan and Armenia have defied calls for a ceasefire in the midst of the worst fighting in decades between the two over disputed territory.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a war in 1988-94 over the territory that resulted in 25,000 deaths and a further escalation of violence in 2016. Armenia supports the self-proclaimed republic but has never officially recognised it.
