BAKU, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan on Friday refuted reports of the Armenian side about its reconnaissance and sabotage operation in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone of conflict.
"Information spread by the Armenian side about the alleged commitment to sabotage by the Azerbaijani armed forces on the line of contact, which led to losses, is false," Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
"Such reports of the Armenian side are aimed at deterioration of the situation on the line of contact," it said, adding that "the Azerbaijani army did not carry out any reconnaissance and sabotage operations and did not suffer any loss."
The ministry also said Azerbaijani troops fully control the situation along the frontline.
Earlier on Friday, Armenian media, citing the "defense ministry" of the self-proclaimed "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic," reported that the Azerbaijani troops attempted on Oct. 20 to conduct a reconnaissance and sabotage operation in the eastern and southern directions of the contact line, with resulting losses.
The two ex-Soviet areas, Azerbaijan and Armenia, fought a war over the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early 1990s, in which thousands were killed on both sides and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.
In more than 25 years since a ceasefire, daily gunfire has sometimes killed border guards on both sides before the worst escalation began in April of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict since the mid-1990s.
Nagorno-Karabakh region has run its own affairs with heavy military and financial backing from Armenia. Armenian-backed forces also hold seven Azerbaijani districts surrounding the region.
Efforts to reach a permanent settlement have failed despite the mediation led by France, Russia and the United States.
