According to reports, a Karabakh Armenian civilian threw an explosive device at Azerbaijani soldiers at a checkpoint near Shushi (Susa).
The incident happened five days after one Armenian civilian was killed and three others were wounded by Azerbaijani forces while repairing water pipes just outside the Azeri-controlled town on November 8.
According to reports, Azerbaijani soldiers opened fire at an Armenian civilian car in response to the alleged attack.
A video that appeared online today shows a man throwing an explosive device at an Azerbaijani checkpoint from a passing vehicle. Another video shows Russian peacekeepers detaining the man.
Authorities in Baku reported that three Azerbaijani soldiers were injured in the incident. They described the incident as a “terrorist act.”
De-facto Armenian authorities in Stepanakert said that a joint investigation with Russian peacekeepers was underway to establish the circumstances of the incident. In a statement they added, however, that the person who threw the explosive device did so in response to “provocative actions” of Azerbaijani soldiers. Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian authorities also insisted that no one was hurt as a result of the incident.
Immediately after the incident it was reported that the Stepanakert-Shushi-Berdzor road known as the Lachin corridor was closed for traffic in both directions. Later, ethnic Armenian law-enforcement authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh said that the vital link was reopened.
Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the 25-kilometer-long and 5-kilometer-wide corridor last November after Moscow brokered a ceasefire agreement that put an end to 44 days of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
At one junction south of Stepanakert the zigzagging road passes just off Shushi, a strategic Karabakh town that was captured by Azerbaijani forces during the war.