ANAMA reveals more UXOs in frontline regions

/By Azernews/

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan’s National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) continues demining operations in country’s regions adjacent to the front-line area.

The Agency has detected five Unexploded Ordnances (UXOs) in Fizuli and Tartar regions of the country on May 30.

ANAMA experts examined seven shell craters on a cultivation area and a territory of 8,000 square meters. As a result, a part of the Grad missile engine was found and neutralized in Jamilli village of Tartar region.

Moreover, during the inspection of six shell craters in pastures, two unexploded artillery shell of 120 mm and two shells of 152 mm caliber were detected in Shukurbeyli village of Fizuli region.

Tartar and Fizuli regions have been suffering from Armenia’s attacks most of all. During the recent provocations in the front-line areas, their villages have become the main target of the Armenian belligerent army.

The agency also carried out inspections in the Agjabadi region. ANAMA inspected three houses and household plots, area of a high school, 20 shell craters, and detected five UXBs.

In general, 543 houses and household plots, 21 farms and acreages, four rural schools, two military units and rural cemeteries, one medical center and winery in Zardab, Tartar, Shamkir, Agjabedi, Agdam, Fizuli, Tovuz, Goranboy, Samukh, Shamkir, Jalilabad and Ujar regions, Mingachevir and Baku were inspected from April 7 to May 30 by ANAMA. As a result, 1477 UXBs, 13 anti-personnel and six anti-tank mines were detected and neutralized.

Currently, special rapid response teams of ANAMA with minesweeper dogs continue their operations for detecting UXBs in the border settlements.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

While the OSCE Minsk Group acted as the only mediator in resolution of the conflict, the occupation of the territory of the sovereign State with its internationally recognized boundaries has been left out of due attention of the international community for years.

Armenia ignores four UN Security Council resolutions on immediate withdrawal from the occupied territory of Azerbaijan, thus keeping tension high in the region.