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Azerbaijan “punishment” forces “penalize” fleeing soldiers
Azerbaijan uses retaliatory detachments that are punishing the servicemen who choose to back away from the fight, spokesperson for the Armenian Defense Ministry wrote on Facebook.

“According to confirmed sources, the combat efficiency of the Azeri troops has fallen so drastically that even hired mercenaries with vast terrorist experience are unable to help. At this moment, in these territories, Azerbaijan uses forces of punishment by death to those servicemen who choose to back away from the fight,” Artsrun Hovhannisyan wrote.
Now this is propaganda!
The situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone dramatically escalated on Saturday night. From regular shootings and frequent sabotage-reconnaissance attempts, Azerbaijan has now moved to large-scale attack all along the Line of Contact, using a variety of weaponry as well as artillery, armored vehicles, and air force. Both sides have suffered losses.
I used to watch these festivities back in the early '90s, when the Soviet Union broke up. The Azeris must be really good lovers, because one thing they ain't is soldiers.
Biden talks to Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden talked to the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan calling them to reach a comprehensive settlement of Karabakh conflict.

“As I told Presidents Aliyev & Sargsyan, comprehensive settlement in #NagornoKarabakh is critical for their stability, security, prosperity,” Biden tweeted.
So he didn't talk to them, he tweeted. That says a lot about American foreign policy these days, doesn't it...
And both of them looked stunned and said: "It is? Wow! We never thought of that!"
Armenia asks for stopping military operations

Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan asks for stopping military operations, RIA Novosti reported Apr. 4. Armenia is ready for compromises in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said the report.

On the night of Apr. 2, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from Armenians, who were using large-caliber weapons, mortars, grenade launchers and guns. Azerbaijani settlements near the frontline densely populated by civilians were shelled as well.

A counter-attack was carried out following the provocations of the Armenian armed forces on the night of Apr. 2.
Trend Azerbaijan is not a reliable source in this conflict. Salt required.
Azerbaijani army may strike Khankendi

Azerbaijan's army may carry out strikes on the city of Khankendi and other occupied settlements, read a message posted on the website of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry Apr. 4.
Then again, it may not...
"Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry has tasked all the types of the armed forces, including the rocket and artillery troops, to be ready to carry out crushing strikes from all heavy combat weapons on the Khankendi city and other occupied settlements, if the Armenians don't stop shelling Azerbaijani settlements in a short time," said the message.
If the Azeris could displace the Armenians they'd do so. There's certainly no love lost between the two. The fact that the Azeris are talking big means they aren't yet capable of acting big...
Armenian armed forces are targeting densely populated residential areas and civilians in order to retaliate for heavy causalities along the frontline, added the ministry.

Four Armenian troops killed in fresh clashes with Azerbaijan over Karabakh

[Iran Press TV] At least four Armenian military personnel have been killed in a series of festivities between Armenian-backed and Azerbaijani forces in the disputed Caucasus region of Karabakh.

"Four more military victims were announced today on the Karabakh side," in fresh festivities with Azerbaijan forces on Monday, said Hovhannes Guevorkian, Karabakh representative in La Belle France.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Guevorkia blamed Azeri forces for continued bombing of towns across the volatile region, saying the violence-wracked region would use fixed-wing combat aircraft if there was a new large-scale attack by Azerbaijan forces.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wreckage, Captain Poindexter awoke groggily, his hand still stuck in the Ming vase...
 a front man for the Armenia-backed authorities in Karabakh have accused Azeri forces of killing three civilians, including a 92-year-old woman, in the village of Talysh.

Armenian Defense Ministry front man Artsrun Hovhannisyan also claimed that the Yerevan-backed forces had "seriously advanced at certain sectors of the front line and took up new positions." The remarks were quickly dismissed as "untrue" by senior Azerbaijan authorities in Baku.
Update from Ynet at 10:00 a.m. ET:
Azerbaijan says cease-fire agreed in Nagorno-Karabakh battle

Azerbaijan and separatist forces in Nagorno-Karabakhk on Tuesday agreed on a cease-fire starting noon local time following three days of the heaviest fighting in the disputed region since 1994, the Azeri defense ministry announced.

The operations of Azerbaijani and Karabakh troops "have been stopped," the ministry said.

An News Agency that Dare Not be Named news hound in the front-line area of Azerbaijan heard shelling Tuesday morning but there was no sound of fighting in the early afternoon.
Posted by: Steve White 2016-04-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=451524