Several Armenian soldiers dead in military ’incident’

Up to six Armenian soldiers have died in a shooting incident in the disputed Azerbaijani enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, a human-rights activist and news media said Friday.

Officials refused to confirm the number of dead, but Armenia’s defense ministry issued a statement Thursday saying that an “incident” in the military involving “use of firearms” had resulted in an unspecified number of deaths.

Human-rights activist Artur Sakunts told Agence France-Presse that, according to his sources, an Armenian soldier had killed five fellow servicemen in Karabakh on Wednesday.

Sakunts said the soldier had gone on a shooting rampage after being discovered asleep at his post, killing two officers and three soldiers, before turning his gun on himself.

Armed forces in former Soviet republics such as Armenia have been plagued by similar shooting incidents, blamed on brutal hazing and corruption.

Azerbaijan has suffered from two military shootings this year, including an incident in January that saw two Azerbaijani soldiers shoot and kill four fellow servicemen before killing themselves.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenian forces since the end of a six-year conflict that left about 30,000 people dead and displaced 1 million prior to a 1994 truce.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=up-to-six-dead-in-armenian-military-shooting-reports-2010-07-30

Posted by admin July 2010

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