ARMENIANS, AZERBAIJAN TRADE BLAME OVER PEACE DEAL BREACH

Armenian officials and Azerbaijan on Saturday accused each other of breaching a peace deal that ended six weeks of fierce fighting over Nagorno-karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s leader threatened to crush Armenian forces with an “iron fist.”

The new clashes mark the first significant breach of the peace deal brokered by Russia on Nov. 10 that saw Azerbaijan reclaim control over broad swaths of Nagornokarabakh and surrounding lands that were held by Armenian forces for more than a quarter-century.

Separatist officials in Nagornokarabakh said the Azerbaijani military launched an attack late Friday that left three local ethnic Armenian servicemen wounded.

Russian peacekeepers deployed to the region to monitor the peace deal reported a violation of the cease-fire in the Gadrut region on Friday.

The report issued Saturday by the Russian Defense Ministry didn’t assign blame.

Later in the day, the Armenian Defense Ministry also charged that the Azerbaijani army mounted an attack in the south of Nagorno-karabakh on Saturday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reacted on Saturday by blaming Armenia for the new clashes and threatened to “break its head with an iron fist.”

“Armenia shouldn’t try to start it all over again,” Aliyev said during a meeting with top diplomats from the United States and France who have tried to mediate the decades-old conflict. “It must be very cautious and not plan any military action. This time, we will fully destroy them. It mustn’t be a secret to anyone.”

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement late Saturday that its forces thwarted Armenian “provocations” and restored the cease-fire.

Armenian officials said the fighting raged near the villages of Hin Tager and Khtsaberd, the only settlements in the Gadrut region that are still controlled by Armenian forces.

They noted that the two villages have been fully encircled by the Azerbaijani army, which controls the only road leading to them.