Medal requested for Azeri soldier who shot down helicopter
BAKU. Nov 12 (Interfax) - Azeri Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov has requested a medal for a soldier who has shot down a helicopter that belonged either to the Armenian military or to the armed forces of Azerbaijan's breakaway Armenian-speaking enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azeri Defense Ministry said.
"Showing vigilance and heroism," Ilkin Muradov "shot down the enemy aircraft in carrying out his service duties," the ministry said in a statement.
The helicopter was one of a pair of choppers that had flown into Azeri air space, according to the ministry.
"One of the helicopters in the enemy combat pair was destroyed, and the other managed to evade the line of fire and escaped," the statement said.
Three crewmembers were believed to have died.
The minister has asked for Muradov, who has stayed in the military after his term of national service expired, to be awarded the medal "For Distinguished Military Service" 3rd Class, the ministry said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the ministry had said Azeri forces had brought down an Armenian military helicopter, a Mil Mi-24, about 2 kilometers from the village of Kenqerli, Aqdam district.
Meanwhile, the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic said Azeri forces had blown down an Mi-24 helicopter of the Nagorno-Karabakh forces on Wednesday. It claimed the chopper had been doing a training flight.
