Azerbaijan says Armenia violated truce

A skirmish near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh killed two Azerbaijani soldiers and three Armenian troops, Azerbaijani officials said Wednesday. Authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh denied the claim.

Azerbaijani Defense Ministry spokesman Ilgar Verdiyev said the incident occurred Tuesday when Armenian forces fired on Azerbaijani positions in the Agdam and Fizuli regions near the boundary of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenian military spokesman Senor Asratian in Nagorno-Karabakh denied there had been any fighting.

The incident underscored mounting tension in the disputed territory, which is officially in Azerbaijan but has been controlled _ along with some surrounding areas _ by local and Armenian forces since 1994. Nagorno-Karabakh has been governed by a shaky cease-fire agreement that ended a six-year separatist war in 1994.

Some 30,000 people were killed and about 1 million driven from their homes during the fighting. Ethnic Armenians now account for virtually the entire population of the territory.

Nagorno-Karabakh held presidential elections in July, which Azerbaijan has rejected as illegitimate.