Azeri President Ilham Aliyev accused Armenia of committing a war crime by carrying out a missile attack on the city of Ganja, killing 13 civilians and wounding more than 50, Reuters reported on Saturday.
“They will be held responsible for that,” Aliyev said. “If the international community does not punish Armenia, we will do it.”
The attack on Azerbaijan’s second largest city came hours after shelling on Nagorno-Karabakh’s capital Stepanakert, according to Agence France Presse, marking a new escalation in the three-week conflict between ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis over the breakaway region.
The Azeri Prosecutor General’s office said 20 apartment buildings in a residential area of Ganja were hit by the missile attack, according to Reuters. An Azeri official cited by AFP said an industrial district was also hit.
The Azeri Defence Ministry said the nearby city of Mingecevir had come “under fire” around the same time, but provided no immediate details, AFP reported.
Mingecevir is protected by a missile defence system because it is home to a strategic dam, and it was not immediately clear if the missile was destroyed in the air or had made impact, AFP said.
The Armenian Defence Ministry denied Armenian forces shelling cities in Azerbaijan and accused the Azeri government of continuing to shell populated areas inside Nagorno-Karabakh, including Stepanakert, according to Reuters.
Following the attack on Ganja, the Armenian government’s online platform listed what it considered legitimate military targets in the city. with ahvalnews
Legitimate military targets located in the Azerbaijani city of Ganja
Военные объекты, расположенные в городе Гянджа #NKpeace pic.twitter.com/8JJnUiQm4K
— Armenian Unified Infocenter (@ArmenianUnified) October 17, 2020