Shelling of Stepanakert

The Shelling of Stepanakert (Armenian: Ստեփանակերտի ռմբակոծումը) was a months-long campaign of intentional bombardment of civilian targets of the city of Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic by Azerbaijan, in 1991 and 1992, during the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The bombardment of Stepanakert and adjacent Armenian towns and villages, which took place under the conditions of total blockade by Azerbaijan, caused widespread destruction and many civilian deaths.

HRW reported that main bases used by Azerbaijani armed forces for the bombardment of Stepanakert included the towns of Khojaly and Shusha. Azerbaijan used forbidden weapons such as multiple-launch rocket systems Grad and Alazan on the civilian population. The indiscriminate shelling, sniper shooting and aerial attacks killed or maimed hundreds of civilians, destroyed homes, hospitals, kindergartens and other objects that were not legitimate military targets, and generally terrorized the civilian population. As a result of the offensive launched by Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh more than 40,000 people became refugees, dozens of villages were burnt and ruined.

According to Memorial Human Rights Center, the residential areas of both Stepanakert and Shushi were shelled on a regular basis with the use of artillery and rocket launchers. There were more destruction and casualties in Stepanakert than in Shusha, which could be explained by location of Stepanakert in the lowland and much higher intensity of shelling from Shusha due to Azerbaijan's capture of Soviet depots in Aghdam and other locales with more than 11,000 wagons full of rockets, including those for BM-21 MLRS.

The indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas stopped only after the successful suppression of Azerbaijani military outposts in the nearby town of Shusha by Armenian units on May 8–9, 1992.