Al Jazeera – Thirteen civilians have been killed and more than 40 people injured in an early-hours missile attack on Azerbaijan’s second-biggest city, Ganja, the Azerbaijani prosecutor general’s office said.
A missile raid levelIed a row of homes in Azerbaijan’s second city of Ganja, killing and badly injuring people in their sleep in a sharp escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The Armenian defence ministry denied the claim and accused Baku of continuing to shell populated areas inside Nagorno-Karabakh, including Stepanakert, the region’s biggest city.
Here are the latest updates on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict:
Saturday, October 17
09:30 GMT – Turkey calls attack on Azerbaijani city by Armenia ‘war crime’
Armenia is committing a “war crime” and must be held responsible for its “atrocity,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu wrote on Twitter.
Hikmat Hajiyev, a foreign policy aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, said his country wants a ceasefire.
“We support a humanitarian ceasefire, but Armenia isn’t giving it a chance … they keep targeting residential areas,” Hajiyev said in an online briefing with journalists.
09:00 GMT – Azerbaijan president vows ‘revenge’ after shelling on Ganja
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev vowed to strike back against Armenia after shelling on his country’s second largest city Ganja.
Aliyev said Azerbaijan’s army would retaliate against Armenia and “take revenge on the battlefield,” in televised remarks hours after the shelling on a residential area in Ganja flattened rows of houses.
08:35 GMT – Ganja official says death toll is 13, including two children
Mushfiq Jafarov, a member of parliament from Ganja, told Al Jazeera stringer Seymur Kazimov that the death toll from the attack on Ganja now stands at 13.
“There are only civilians living here,” he said, adding that two little children were among those killed.
Jafarov said two sites were targeted, with a distance of 5km between them.
“More than 40 are wounded,” he said.
08:20 GMT -Civilians in Ganja decry Armenian attack on their homes
The attack on Ganja, which has a population of more than 300,000 people, came only six days after a missile struck another residential part of the city, killing 10 civilians and leaving many on edge.
“Fortunately my family and I were not at home,” Sevil Aliyeva told Al Jazeera stringer Seymur Kazimov. “My house is fully destroyed. I do believe the Azerbaijani army will take our revenge from Armenian forces.”
“We were sleeping. The kids were watching TV,” Rubaba Zhafarova, 65, said in front of her destroyed home.
“All the houses around here are destroyed. Many people are under the rubble. Some are dead, some are wounded.”
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