OSCE representatives inspect area where Azeri troops found unexploded ordnance with banned phosphorus
BAKU. May 11 (Interfax) - Representatives of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have inspected the area in the Karabakh conflict zone where specialists from Azerbaijan's National Demining Agency (ANAMA) found an unexploded phosphorus bomb, Azeri Defense Ministry spokesman Vagif Dargyakhly told Interfax.
"OSCE representatives, on Wednesday, in conducting a monitoring on the military contact line, inspected the territory where an unexploded phosphorous projectile was discovered," the spokesman said.
The area was also inspected by 20 accredited military attaches from eleven countries, he said. "ANAMA staff gave the diplomats detailed information on the use by the Armenian armed forces of the weapons that are prohibited by international conventions," he said.
Hikmet Hajiyev, a spokesman for the Azeri Foreign Ministry, told Interfax that the instance of the banned weapons being used "will be documented, and the documents will be sent to all international organizations."
An ANAMA spokesperson said earlier, that unexploded phosphorous munitions, prohibited by international protocols and conventions, had been discovered in the village of Askipara, on the frontline of the Tartar district. According to ANAMA, the shell was launched by Armenian troops.
For his part, a spokesman for the president of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) David Babayan told Interfax, on Wednesday, that the NKR army never used prohibited weapons in the war with Azerbaijan.
Tensions in the Karabakh conflict zone abruptly escalated in the early hours of April 2. Hostilities engaging aircraft and artillery began. The sides traded accusations of the breach of ceasefire along the contact line, as well as claiming the adversary's substantial losses and limited losses of their own.
On April 5, Baku and Stepanakert, the capital of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, announced that an agreement had been reached to cease fire in the Karabakh conflict area, from midday local time. Since then, the sides have been trading accusations daily of multiple truce breaches.