Civilian areas attacked, Nato seeks truce

Armenia and Azerbaijan yesterday accused each other of attacking civilian areas on the ninth day of the deadliest fighting in the South Caucasus region for more than 25 years.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg added his voice to calls for an immediate end to the clashes over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountain enclave that belongs to Azerbaijan under international law but is populated and governed by ethnic Armenians.

But prospects for a ceasefire appeared remote after the fighting intensified over the weekend and following uncompromising comments by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

In an address to the nation on Sunday, Aliyev said Azeri forces were advancing and retaking lands that had been in the hands of ethnic Armenians since a war in the 1990s.

He said Armenia must set a timetable for withdrawing from Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding Azeri territories, and that Azerbaijan would not cease military action until that happened. "Azerbaijan has one condition, and that is the liberation of its territories," he said. Aliyev said in an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT Haber yesterday that Ankara must be involved in any moves to end the conflict.