Artsakh Defense Forces Destroy Gyanja Military Airfield in Azerbaijan

STEPANAKERT — Artsakh Defense Army has stated that it’s forces have destroyed a military airfield in Gyanja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city located a few dozen kilometers from the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact”.

The Defense Army said hat it is “dealing powerful blows to very important military facilities located deep inside Azerbaijan.”

“By my order today, the Defense Army has hit several rocket strikes in Gyanja city. At this point, I have ordered to stop fire to avoid innocent victims among civilians”. Arayik Harutyunyan said in a live TV statement.

“If the adversary does not reciprocate appropriately, we will continue to with a proportional response to strike and dismantle the adversary’s military infrastructure, hardware, and ability to wage war.” stated Harutyunyan.

Baku confirmed that Gyanja was hit by rockets but did not immediately specify damage caused by them. A senior Azerbaijani official said that they were fired from Armenia. The Armenian Defense Ministry swiftly denied the claim.

Video images have shown panicking Gyanja residents running for cover.

Stepanakert Shelled again
Rockets again struck Nagorno-Karabakh capital Stepanakert on Sunday morning in what was its worst shelling by Azerbaijani forces since the start of hostilities in the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict zone a week ago.

Alarm sirens across the city went off as the shelling began at around 7:30 a.m. local time and continued for at least three hours.

An RFE/RL correspondent at the scene heard about two dozen powerful explosions. They cut off electricity supply to some parts of Stepanakert. It was restored about 40 minutes later.

Video below shows an entire street is destroyed within seconds in Artsakh by an Azerbaijani strike using what appears to be cluster munitions

Karabakh officials said that the city was hit by Polonez and Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems used by the Azerbaijani army. They did not immediately say if anyone was hurt by the latest artillery strike.

Most Stepanakert residents have stayed in bomb shelters since the outbreak of the war on September 27. One of them was killed and ten others wounded when the Karabakh capital was shelled on Friday.

Arayik Harutiynyan has accused Azerbaijan of deliberately targeting the Armenian-populated civilian population. In a Facebook post, Harutyunyan said that in response to that Karabakh’s Armenian-backed army has decided to strike “major military facilities located in Azerbaijan’s large cities.”

“I call on Azerbaijani civilians to quickly leave those cities to avoid possible losses,” he wrote.