Yerevan---Azerbaijani forces on Saturday killed two ethnic-Armenian servicemen of the breakaway Nagorny Karabakh army, the separatist defence ministry said, in the latest clash along the rebel region's volatile frontline.
"On February 28, Azerbaijani army units attempted a reconnaissance incursion at the north-eastern sector of the frontline and were repelled by the Karabakh armed forces," the ministry said in a statement.
"Two Karabakh army servicemen... were killed in action."
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 13 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 and seven adjacent districts of Azerbaijan 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 territories by force if negotiations fail to yield results.
Armenia, which is heavily armed by Russia, says it could crush any offensive.
AFP
