Tensions rise in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh

After ceasefire violations by Armenia's armed forces 122 times, Azerbaijan has destroyed an Armenian air defense system in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, officials in Baku said Tuesday, raising tensions in the festering conflict.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry says it has destroyed an Armenian air defense missile system in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the statement, its forces destroyed an Osa air defense system along with its crew, adding that its deployment near the line of control was a "provocation" and a threat to Azerbaijani aircraft.

Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a protracted conflict over the disputed region, and frequent exchanges of fire nearly spiraled into all-out war last year.

Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan. Baku and Yerevan have feuded over the Nagorno-Karabakh region since Armenian separatists seized the territory in a war that claimed some 30,000 lives in the early 1990s and ended in a frail 1994 truce. Efforts to negotiate a settlement have failed, and frequent clashes have continued.

In April last year, at least 110 people from both sides were killed as simmering violence flared into the worst clashes in decades over the region. A Russian-brokered ceasefire ended the four days of fierce fighting but attempts to relaunch the stalled peace process since then have failed.