Azerbaijan: We've liberated seven more villages from Armenian occupation

Azerbaijan says it has liberated seven more villages in Jabrayil, Zangilan and Gubadli from Armenian occupation in Karabakh.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's military shot down another Armenian Su-25 fighter jet which was preparing to attack, according to a Turkish Defence Ministry statement on Wednesday.

“The number of downed Armenian fighter jets reached to seven,” the ministry added.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday evening, Azerbaijan Presidential Aide Hikmet Hajiyev said, "Armenia continues to use white phosphorus projectiles on civilians, villages. We have destroyed one such projectile in the Tartar region."

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that Tartar's city centre and Shikharkh village are under intensive artillery fire by Armenian armed forces.

It said Armenian forces were indiscriminately shelling villages near Tartar and Aghjabed, as fighting between the two countries continue. 

Earlier on Wednesday, Baku announced it had neutralised an air-defence system, after destroying two of Armenia's ammunition depots near Khankendi on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Azerbaijan retakes more villages from Armenian occupation – Aliyev

Strike on civilian settlements

Armenia’s army continued to suffer losses amid its attacks on Azerbaijani soldiers and civilian areas despite a ceasefire, Baku said.

“During the day on November 3 and night on November 4, the Armenian armed forces fired at the positions of the units of Azerbaijan Army in different directions of the front and our human settlements with various small arms, howitzers and mortars,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The combat operations continued with varying intensity, mainly in the Tartar, Aghdam, Khojavend, Zangilan and Gubadli directions of the front,” it added.

Armenian forces were “forced to retreat with casualties in personnel and military vehicles in some areas of the front,” the statement said.

“During the day and at nighttime, a large number of enemy forces, two T-72 tanks, three D-30 howitzer-guns, a Zastava M-55 anti-aircraft gun, one tactical UAV and three military trucks were destroyed and wrecked,” it added.

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200 villages retaken

Fresh clashes erupted on September 27, and since then Armenia has repeatedly attacked Azerbaijani civilians and forces, even violating three humanitarian ceasefires since October 10.

To date, over 200 villages and settlements have been freed by Azerbaijani armed forces from Armenia's occupation.

As of Wednesday, at least 90 civilians have lost their lives, including 11 children and infants, and 405 people, including at least 36 children, have been injured in attacks by Armenian forces, according to Azerbaijan's chief prosecutor's office.

Some 2,700 homes and 98 multi-apartment residential buildings have been destroyed and 500 civilian facilities have been damaged, as well.

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Nearly three-decade occupation

Relations between the two former Soviet republics have been tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Upper Karabakh, or Nagorno-Karabakh, an internationally recognised territory of Azerbaijan, and surrounding regions.

Four UN Security Council resolutions and two from the UN General Assembly, as well as international organisations, demand the "immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces" from the Azerbaijani territory.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also refers to the territory as being under the occupation of Armenian forces.

About 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory – including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions – has been under illegal Armenian occupation for nearly three decades.

The Minsk Group of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe – co-chaired by France, Russia and the US – was formed in 1992 to find a peaceful solution to the conflict, but to no avail. A ceasefire, however, was agreed to in 1994.

World powers including France, Russia and the US have called for a sustainable ceasefire. Turkey, meanwhile, has supported Baku's right to self-defence and demanded the withdrawal of Armenia's occupying forces.

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