STEPANAKERT, NKR (A.W.)—Azerbaijani Armed Forces shot down an Artsakh Air Force Mi-24 helicopter on a training flight on Nov. 12. The helicopter was engaged in military training exercises near the contact line. The incident took place at 1:45 p.m. local time, the press service of the Nagorno Karabagh Republic (NKR) Defense Ministry reported.
“Today, at 13:45, an Mi-24 helicopter was shot down in the eastern airspace [of NKR], near the Karabagh-Azerbaijani border, by the Azerbaijani Armed Forces—a ceasefire violation. The area where the helicopter was shot is very close to the Line of Contact. The enemy continues to fire intensively, with weapons of various caliber, at the area where the incident took place,” the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement.
According to a source in Artsakh, three members of the Artsakh Air Force were killed in the attack.
The training flight was part of joint Armenia-Artsakh military drills in the area. The “Unity 2014” exercises involved over 30,000 troops, 3,000 armored vehicles, artillery, and air defense units, according to the NKR Defense Ministry website.
Meanwhile, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry has claimed that the attack was a defense maneuver. “On November 12 at about 1:45 pm, the Mi-24 helicopter of the Armenian Armed Forces flying 1700 meters north-east of Kangarli village of Aghdam region attacked the Azerbaijani positions. The enemy helicopter was shot down with return fire,” reported the Azeri APA news agency, which had received a statement from the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry.
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