Azerbaijan apologises for shooting down Russian helicopter
Azerbaijan apologises for shooting down Russian helicopter
MOSCOW (AFP) - A Russian military helicopter was shot down in Armenia near the border with Azerbaijan on Monday, the defence ministry in Moscow said, killing two crew members.
The ministry said that the Mi-24 helicopter was hit by a man-portable air defence system close to the border with Azerbaijan, whose forces are fighting Armenian-backed separatists in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
A third person was injured and evacuated, the ministry said in a statement.
Azerbaijan admitted it had shot down a Russian military helicopter on its border with Armenia and apologised.
"The Azerbaijani side offers an apology to the Russian side in connection with this tragic incident," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding the move was an accident and "not aimed against" Moscow.
The helicopter was shot down near the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan, the statement said.
The defence ministry said that the helicopter was shot down near the village of Yeraskh at around 1430 GMT as it accompanied a convoy of Russia’s military base in Armenia.
A probe at the Russian base was under way, the ministry said.
Armenian authorities for their part said the Russian helicopter had crashed "in a gorge" near the village of Yeraskh.
The incident came during a spike in fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists.
Azerbaijan said on Sunday its forces had captured the strategic town of Susha, but Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Monday that fighting was continuing.
Russia, which has a military alliance with Armenia, has said it would only intervene if fighting reached Armenian soil, after Pashinyan asked President Vladimir Putin to begin "urgent" consultations on security assistance.
New clashes broke out in late September between Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed separatists over Nagorno-Karabakh, which declared its independence nearly 30 years ago.
The recent fighting has been the worst in decades, with at least 1,000 people killed including dozens of civilians, with the death toll believed to be much higher.
