On October 4, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces carried out intense rocket strikes on the city of Stepanakert, the capital of the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The strikes led to material damage in the city’s populated neighborhood. According to the Armenian Unified Info-center, the strikes also resulted in civilian casualties. The Info-center has not provided any details or numbers, yet.
Aftermath, #Stepanakert, #NagornoKarabakh pic.twitter.com/N38MKE6cMi
— A#### ?? (@aldin_ww) October 4, 2020
Street level damage in #Stepanakert from BM-30 latest shelling from #Azerbaijan.#NagornoKarabakh pic.twitter.com/j5eAl3r0JM
— A#### ?? (@aldin_ww) October 4, 2020
From the ground in #Stepanakert, in latest round of shelling earlier electricity substation suffered from the strike. https://t.co/we7fg9ZURA pic.twitter.com/tqmIDGdJ3n
— A#### ?? (@aldin_ww) October 4, 2020
Slow motion video of #Azerbaijan Smerch rocket landing at #Stepanakert, #NagornoKarabakh https://t.co/miLsDOY3t5 pic.twitter.com/PulGlNKM73
— A#### ?? (@aldin_ww) October 4, 2020
#Armenia also used BM-30 Smerch in today’s attack on Ganja, #Azerbaijan. Seems to be a cargo rocket but I don’t have any pictures of bomblets so I can’t be sure. pic.twitter.com/v4xqDcYr8X
— A#### ?? (@aldin_ww) October 4, 2020
Another video of intense shelling on Stepanakert. 586/https://t.co/ahRAGZSuAV pic.twitter.com/7d5BOrU43Y
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 4, 2020
Arayik Harutyunyan, President of the de facto State of Artsakh in Nagorno-Karabakh, revealed that Azerbaijani forces are targeting Stepanakert with Polonez and BM-30 Smerch multiple rocket launch systems (MRLS).
“Azerbaijani terrorist army targets civilians in Stepanakert, using Polonez & Smerch MLRS. From now on mil objects in large cities of Azerbaijan are the target of the Defense Army of Artsakh. Calling on Azerbaijani population to leave these cities to avoid inevitable loss,” Harutyunyan said on Twitter.
The Azerbaijani Armed Forces are known to be operating 30 Russian-made Smerch MRLS and at least 10 Belarusian-made Polonez MRLS.
Some of the rockets that hit Stepanakert were armed with Israeli-made M095 submunitions. This indicates that the city was also targeted with LAR-160 MRLS, which were used before against civilian areas in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Clearest video so far showing #Azerbaijan use of #cluster munition on #Stepanakert, #NagornoKarabakh.#Armenia pic.twitter.com/oK6X5yW1EO
— A#### ?? (@aldin_ww) October 4, 2020
Screenshots of the munitions used in the strike. 580/https://t.co/nmjYJbQ1s6 pic.twitter.com/vHuudRbHQU
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) October 4, 2020
Earlier in the morning, Armenian forces shelled an air base near the Azerbaijani’ second largest city, Ganja. A civilian was killed and at least four others were injured.
Today’s rocket strikes will likely lead to more escalation. The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh is, without any doubt, still far from being over.
The question is that, if Azerbaijan is winning the upper hand, why do they need to hit N-K civilian city? It is all N-K Armenian propaganda….
Or Azerbaijan is losing.
It is a common practice in positional war. It moves away the civilians and military becomes less motivated to fight till death. We have seen some retreats from Armenian forces, but too soon to tell if this was the reason or not.
Or is just a polite way to invite them to live… since they are Armenians, they will be ethnic cleansed anyway.
Azerbaijan is trying to commit the Armenian genocide 2.0 !!!
They are directly targeting civilians !!!