Azerbaijan, Armenia spar over clash

Azerbaijan and Armenia accused each other yesterday of triggering a shootout in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh that killed up to 16 people, one of the biggest such clashes in recent years.

Both countries gave different accounts of the shootouts in the disputed enclave, seized by pro-Armenian forces from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s in which an estimated 35,000 people died.

Muslim Azerbaijan said 12 Armenian fighters and four Azeri soldiers were killed during clashes. Christian Armenia said eight Azeri soldiers died and two Armenian soldiers were injured.