Azerbaijan says one of its serviceman has died and another been wounded in an attack staged by Armenian separatist forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, weeks after the two sides reached a Russian-mediated ceasefire deal to end hostilities.
"On December 27 ... an illegal Armenian armed group ... attacked posts of the Azerbaijani Army in the village of Agdam in the Khojavend District. As a result, one of our servicemen ... was killed, and another soldier was wounded”, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The Azerbaijani ministry noted that all members of the attacking force had been "eliminated" in the confrontation.
"Thanks to the implemented measures, all six members of Armenia's illegal armed formation were eliminated”, it added.
Armenian authorities, however, said no such incident had taken place, Reuters reported on Monday.
The Moscow-brokered truce in early November pulled the plug on six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and separatists backed by Armenia for control of the disputed region.
The brief war left more than 6,000 people dead. As part of the truce agreement, Armenia returned swathes of territory it had occupied for decades to Azeri control.
The ceasefire, which secured territorial advances for Azerbaijan in Karabakh and seven surrounding districts, has been largely holding, despite sporadic ceasefire violations reported by the two sides.
The truce was seen as a victory in Azerbaijan and prompted anger in Armenia, with protesters demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Russia deployed a peacekeeping force of around 2,000 soldiers to Karabakh under the accord.
Karabakh is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but it has been occupied by ethnic Armenian separatists backed by Armenia since 1992 when they broke from Azerbaijan in a war that killed some 30,000 people.