Three Armenian troops were killed in skirmishes with Azerbaijani forces on Wednesday, the Defense Ministry reported, in one of the worst incidents over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh since a six-week conflict ended last November.
"As a result of armed action launched following an attack by Azerbaijani forces, there are three dead and two wounded from the Armenian side as of 08:30 (0430 GMT)," the ministry stated in a statement.
"The Azerbaijani side is deliberately escalating the situation as its forces remain illegally on Armenia's sovereign territory." Armenia's Foreign Ministry noted.
What did Azerbaijan have to say?
Armenia's claim was denied by the Azeri government.
Armenian soldiers began to fire on Azerbaijani positions in the area of Kelbajar in the early hours of Wednesday, according to the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan.
"Armenia bears full responsibility for the escalation of tensions along with the two countries' shared border," it said, adding that two Azeri soldiers had been wounded.
What happened the previous year?
Last autumn, a six-week battle between the two countries resulted in the deaths of approximately 6,500 people.
The conflict came to an end in November with a cease-fire brokered by Russia, under which Armenia relinquished control of regions it had held for decades.
As part of the accord, there were also prisoner swaps.
Tensions between Baku and Yerevan erupted again in May when Armenia accused Azerbaijan's military of crossing its southern border to "lay siege" to a shared lake.
In recent months, there have been isolated conflicts, raising worries of further fighting.
What is the conflict's background?
Although Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan, its population is predominantly Armenian.
It has been administered for the most part by a separatist, self-declared republic run by ethnic Armenians with the support of the Armenian government.
As the Soviet Union fell apart in the late 1980s, separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh opted to secede from Azerbaijan, and the resulting conflict has claimed the lives of about 30,000 people.
