Baku---Armenian troops on Saturday killed an Azerbaijani soldier in a fresh border clash, Azerbaijan officials said, as tensions mounted over a separatist region.
The soldier "was killed in action as the Armenian forces attempted to attack Azerbaijani army positions," the defence ministry in Azerbaijan's capital Baku said.
"Armenia's military and political leadership bears responsibility for the provocations along the frontline," the ministry said. "From now on, our retaliatory measures will be even tougher."
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a decades-long conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.
Despite years of negotiations, the two sides have not signed a final peace deal, with Karabakh internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan.
Clashes between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces intensified again in January following an unprecedented spiral of violence last year.
At least 12 people from both sides were reported killed and 18 wounded this year in similar incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, and along the Karabakh frontline.
Ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized control of Karabakh during a 1990s war that left some 30,000 dead.
Baku, whose military spending exceeds Armenia's entire state budget, has threatened to take back the region by force if negotiations fail to yield results.
Armenia, which is heavily armed by Russia, says it could crush any offensive.
AFP
