Azerbaijan: Armenia continues to attack civilian areas

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been engaged in fresh clashes over occupied Karabakh and its surrounding districts after a Russian-brokered ceasefire did not hold.

Azerbaijan accused Armenia of attacking civilian areas.

Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry said in a statement on Monday Armenian armed forces were shelling the regions of Goranboy, Tartar and Aghdam.

In Karabakh's main city of Stepanakert, an AFP photographer heard the sounds of shelling from the direction of the town of Armenian-held Hadrut.

In another statement on Monday, Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry said Armenian armed forces were repeatedly attacking civilian areas and that  Azerbaijan's armed forces were also under fire in the direction of Aghdara, Aghdam, Fuzuli and Jabrayil.

The worst fighting in almost three decades erupted on September 27 over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenians since a 1990s war but which is not recognised by any state.

The Azerbaijani defence ministry accused Armenian forces of not complying with a ceasefire agreement negotiated in marathon talks in Moscow last week overseen by Russia.

According to Azerbaijan, a large number of Armenian forces have been killed or wounded and large weapons destroyed, including three of their BM-21 Grad MLRS multiple rocket launchers, one T-72 tank and several vehicles along various fighting fronts.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan: Ganja city targeted from Armenia, not Karabakh

Assault on Azerbaijan's second-largest city

An Armenian missile attack on Azerbaijan's Ganja city came during the early hours of Sunday, killing nine people including four women, the Prosecutor General's Office in Azerbaijan said in a statement. 

As many as 34 others, among them 16 women and six children, were wounded, it said, adding, Armenian attacks have so far destroyed 1,165 houses, 57 buildings, and 146 public buildings.

"The Armenian side aims to recapture the liberated territories. Armenia's political-military leadership bears responsibility for perpetrated crimes. The Azerbaijani side will give a befitting retaliation!" President Ilham Aliyev said on Twitter.

READ MORE: Armenian attack on Azerbaijani city leaves several dead

Temporary ceasefire

The two sides had agreed to implement a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds from 0800 GMT (local time 12pm) on Saturday, after 11 hours of talks in Moscow, for exchanges of prisoners and bodies.

Azerbaijan's Foreign MinisterJeyhun Bayramov said the ceasefire would only last for as long as it took for the Red Cross to arrange the exchange of the dead.

But it didn't. After both sides accused each other of violating it.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan frees more villages around occupied Karabakh as fighting rages

Latest fighting

The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces has left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over occupied Karabakh.

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh.

Recent clashes began when Armenian forces targeted Azerbaijani settlements and military positions in the region.

Four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions, as well as many international organisations, demand the withdrawal of the occupying Armenian forces.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan: Armenia targets civilians in breach of Karabakh truce