BAKU - One Azeri soldier was killed in a ceasefire breach along the tense line dividing Azerbaijan and Armenian-occupied territory, Azeri television channels reported Thursday.
"One soldier in the Azerbaijan Army died as the result of an exchange of fire, the enemy also suffered casualties," ATV television said in an evening news bulletin.
The report said there had been three cease fire breaches throughout Thursday in what is turning into an escalation of hostilities in the volatile area around the disputed Nagorno Karabakh region.
Only six people lost their lives in shootings there last year while three people have been killed and three captured from the Azeri side in the past month alone. An additional 13 people were killed and 21 injured on landmines around Karabakh in 2004.
Armenia denied it had participated in shootings Wednesday in which two Azeris died.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a stalemate over the ethnic Armenian enclave Nagorno Karabakh ever since they ended large-scale hostilities with an uneasy ceasefire agreement in 1994.
Armenia controls Karabakh and seven surrounding regions equal to roughly 14 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory.
03/17/2005 18:35 GMT