■ More shelling occurred in Nagorno-Karabakh despite U.S.hosted talks.

STEPANAKERT, Nagorno-Karabakh — Rocket and artillery barrage hit residential areas in Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday hours after the United States hosted diplomats from Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks on settling their decades-long conflict over the region.

The shelling forced residents of Stepanakert, the regional capital of Nagorno-Karabakh, into shelters, as emergency teams rushed to extinguish fires. Officials said the city was struck with Azerbaijan’s Smerch long-range multiple rocket systems, a

Soviet-designed weapon intended to ravage wide areas with explosives and cluster munitions.

Nagorno-Karabakh authorities said other towns in the region were also targeted by Azerbaijani artillery fire. There was no information about casualties. Officials in Azerbaijan said that the town of Terter and areas in the Gubadli region came under Armenian shelling early Saturday, killing a teenager. They also said a 13-year-old boy died Saturday of wounds from an earlier shelling of Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. The current fighting started Sept. 27 and marks the worst escalation in the conflict since the war’s end. It has killed hundreds, perhaps even thousands, according to official reports.

After two failed attempts by Russia to broker a truce, the U.S. waded onto the scene on Friday, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hosting the Armenian and Azerbaijan foreign ministers for separate talks.

“Both must implement a ceasefire and return to substantive negotiations,” Pompeo said in a tweet after the negotiations.