2010 Mardakert skirmish
| 2010 Mardakert Skirmishes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict | |||||
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| Belligerents | |||||
 Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia
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 Azerbaijan
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| Strength | |||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||
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June: 4 dead, 4 wounded September: 1 wounded (Armenian claim) 3 dead (Azerbaijani claim) |
June: 2 dead September: 1 dead (Azerbaijani claim) 2 dead (Armenian claim) |
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The 2010 Mardakert skirmishes were a series of violations of the Nagorno-Karabakh War ceasefire. They took place across the line of contact dividing Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian military forces of the unrecognized but de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Both sides accused the other of violating the ceasefire regime. These were the worst violations of the cease fire (which has been in place since 1994) in two years and left Armenian forces with the heaviest casualties since the Mardakert skirmishes of March 2008.
The skirmish occurred near the village of Chayli, located in the province of Mardakert/Tartar in Nagorno-Karabakh on June 18–19. According to the Defense Ministry of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Armenian forces along the line of contact came under surprise attack by a 20-man Azerbajani reconnaissance or sabotage unit at about 11:30 PM on June 18. The Azeri forces killed four Armenian soldiers and an Azerbaijani warrant officer were killed, and four Armenians were wounded, one critically. According to the NKR Defense Ministry, the body of Azerbaijani Warrant Officer Mubariz Ibrahimov was left on the Armenian side of the contact line, as the rest of his unit retreated. Armenian forces retaliated the next day by launching an attack near Fizuli on June 20–21, killing one Azerbaijani serviceman. Azerbaijani forces claimed to have repelled the attack and inflicted further casualties on the Armenians.
Richard Giragosian, the director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies and a former defense analyst for Jane's, described the intrusion as "either a test on Armenian response or a sign of lack of command and discipline in the Azerbaijani military." He described it as "more professional and more deadly than previous such incursions" and had been planned days in advance. The fact that the attack began with an Azerbaijani sniper inflicting a fatal head wound on an Armenian soldier was further evidence of this, he said.
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Wikipedia