Azeris Killed In Deadliest Clash With Armenia Amid Clinton Visit

AZERIS KILLED IN DEADLIEST CLASH WITH ARMENIA AMID CLINTON VISIT
By Zulfugar Agayev

Bloomberg

June 5 2012

Five Azeri soldiers were killed in a border clash with Armenian
soldiers in the deadliest incident between the neighbors in four
years as visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of
risks of a regional conflict.

The servicemen were killed while repelling an attack by an Armenian
~Ssaboteur~T squad in the western Qazax district early today, Teymur
Abdullayev, a spokesman for the Azeri Defense Ministry, said by phone.

Armenia~Rs Defense Ministry said three soldiers were killed yesterday
by an ~Sinvading~T Azeri group.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan fought a war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh,
a mostly ethnic Armenian-populated region that broke free of Baku~Rs
control after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union in
1991. Clinton, who is visiting the South Caucasus region this week,
said yesterday that sporadic violence along the militarized cease-fire
line threatens to turn into a broader conflict.

~SI am very concerned about the danger of escalation of tensions and
the senseless deaths of young soldiers and innocent civilians,~T
Clinton said at a joint briefing with her Armenian counterpart,
Eduard Nalbandian, in the capital, Yerevan. ~SThe use of force will
not resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and therefore force must
not be used.~T

The territory remains a potential flash point in a region where Russia
fought a five-day war with Georgia in 2008 after separatist tensions
flared up. While the hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan largely
ended after a Russia-brokered cease-fire in 1994, the countries have
failed to reach a peace agreement.

Clinton is also visiting Georgia and Azerbaijan during her trip this
week. Companies led by London-based BP Plc (BP/) have invested about
$35 billion in Azerbaijan~Rs oil and gas fields since 1991.