Iran's Baku Embassy Condemns Killing of Civilians in Nagorno-Karabakh War

“Based on reports from official sources of the Azerbaijan Republic, including the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office, a large number of ordinary citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic, including women and children have been killed or wounded, and many civilian locations, facilities and centers have been destroyed since a fresh wave of fighting began between the warring Azeri and Armenian sides in the Karabakh region and seven surrounding cities," the embassy said in a statement on Sunday.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Azerbaijan Republic has announced that as many as 19 innocent people had been killed, 63 wounded, and 44civilian places and facilities as well as 181 houses had been destroyed by the morning of October 3,” it added.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Embassy in the Azerbaijan Republic underlines the need to observe human rights and international rights, and recalls international norms, principles and regulations ruling armed conflicts, including the Geneva Conventions (1949) and its additional protocols (1977), especially the fourth Geneva Convention on support for civilians, and categorically condemns any violation of innocent people and killing and wounding them as well as destroying and damaging civilian locations, facilities and property, and condoles with the bereaved families,” the statement said, according to the government’s official website.

Azerbaijan and Armenia have exchanged heavy rocket and artillery fire, with each side accusing the other of targeting civilian areas as the fighting over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh intensified.

Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said on Sunday one civilian was killed and four wounded in an Armenian rocket attack on its second city of Ganja, and Baku threatened to retaliate by destroying military targets inside Armenia.