Azerbaijan on Tuesday launched "anti-terrorist operations" in its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, nearly three years after fighting a brief but brutal war with Armenia over the mountainous region.
"At this moment, the capital Stepanakert and other cities and villages are under intensive fire," a separatist organisation based in Armenia said on social media, accusing Azerbaijan of launching a "large-scale military offensive."
The ex-Soviet Caucasus rivals have been locked in a decades-long dispute over Karabakh with large-scale hostilities breaking out in the 1990s and in 2020.
Fears of a fresh war have been building in recent months with Armenia accusing Azerbaijan of a troop build-up and decrying a blockade of its only land link to Nagorno-Karabakh.
"Localised anti-terrorist measures have been launched in the region," Azerbaijan's defence ministry said, accusing Armenian-backed forces of repeated shelling and incursions.
Baku said it was using precision weapons to target Armenian military positions and facilities used by separatists.
"We reiterate that the civilian population and civilian infrastructure are not targets," the statement said.
Azerbaijan justified the mission citing "systematic" shelling by Armenian-backed forces, accusing them of carrying out "reconnaissance activities" and fortifying defensive positions.
"There is also the strengthening of combat positions with personnel, armoured vehicles, artillery and other weapons," Azerbaijan said, accusing separatists of "a high level of combat readiness".
Regional power brokers Russia and Turkey, which oversee a fragile peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, had been informed about Azerbaijan's military activities in Karabakh, Baku said.
Moscow meanwhile asked the parties to the conflict to respect a peace accord and end the "bloodshed".
- Mine blasts -
Azerbaijan's statement came just hours after it said four police officers and two civilians were killed in mine blasts in Nagorno-Karabakh, with authorities blaming separatists.
The deaths at dawn came after Armenian separatists said they had reached an agreement with Azerbaijani authorities to resume aid deliveries to Karabakh.
Baku's security services said two civilians had died in the Khodzhaveskiy distinct and four police officers were killed in another mine explosion en route to the site.
Their vehicle hit "a mine laid on a tunnel road under construction by illegal Armenian armed groups," a statement said.
Azerbaijan said the incident took place "in the zone of temporary deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent," despatched by Moscow in 2020 as part of a ceasefire deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan said the police officers were killed on the road to Azerbaijani-controlled Shusha, recaptured from separatists in 2020.
In the six-week 2020 war, Azerbaijan regained control of key areas of Karabakh, including the culturally revered town of Shusha.
But other parts of the region, including the main city of Stepanakert, remain under the control of Armenian separatists.
Azerbaijan said the road to Shusha was built after it captured pockets of land from Armenia in 2020.
"During the construction of the road, the area along the route was cleared of mines," Baku said.
Nagorno-Karabakh is heavily mined. Over the last three decades, hundreds of Azerbaijanis have been e wounded or killed by landmines laid by Armenian forces.
Azerbaijan said Tuesday more than 300 of its nationals have been wounded or killed by mines since 2020.
Both Azerbaijani and Armenian militaries used them during a bloody conflict in the early 1990s.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that landmines were the main obstacle impeding the return of displaced people to territories retaken from Armenian separatists in 2020.