Azerbaijan holds body of a killed Armenian serviceman: ICRC

PanARMENIAN.Net - The representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross’ Azerbaijani office told the ICRC Karabakh mission’s representative that the body of one killed Armenian soldier is currently in Azerbaijan.

“Negotiations for the return of the body are currently underway,” chairman of Karabakh’s state commission on prisoners of war, hostages and missing persons, Viktor Kocharyan told Yerkir.am.

“There’s no certain date for the return for now. We are not even sure whether the soldier is Armenian or not, but we do know that we have one missing serviceman.”

The parties to the Karabakh conflict agreed on a bilateral cessation of fire along the contact line which came into force at midday, April 5.

Prior to that, on the night of April 1-2, Azerbaijani armed forces initiated overt offensive operations in the southern, southeastern and northeastern directions of the line of contact with Nagorno Karabakh.

The Armenian side has suffered 75 fatalities, 122 more were wounded.

As of April 5, the Azerbaijani side has lost 26 tanks and 4 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as 1 BM-21 Grad multipl e rocket launcher, 1 engineering vehicle, 2 military helicopters and 14 unmanned aerial vehicles. The Azerbaijani side has admitted the loss of 31 fighters, 1 helicopter and 1 unmanned drone, whereas the Armenian side's photo and video materials show dozens of killed Azerbaijani troops, 1 helicopter and 3 UAVs. Opposition media outlets, however, reported on the death of 95 Azerbaijani soldiers, stating that 39 more have been wounded. According to Karabakh authorities, 300 Azerbaijani soldiers were killed in clashes.

14 Karabakh tanks have been neutralized since April 2.