Azerbaijan yesterday handed over to Armenia 15 prisoners of war captured during last year's hostilities over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, the foreign ministry in Baku said. 

The ministry also said that under the deal mediated by Georgia's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, Yerevan reciprocated by providing Baku with maps of minefields in the conflict zone.

Fighting broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in September 2020 over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, claiming some 6,000 lives over six weeks.

The war ended in November with a Russian-brokered ceasefire that saw Yerevan cede swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.

On Saturday, "Azerbaijan handed over to Armenia 15 detained Armenians in exchange for the map of 97,000 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in the Agdam district," one of the territories Armenia has ceded to Baku, Azerbaijani foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry also thanked the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, top US diplomat for Europe Philip Reeker, the European Council President Charles Michel, and the OSCE Swedish chairmanship for their role in negotiations.