{"id":38141,"date":"2023-09-26T07:44:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T07:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=38141"},"modified":"2023-09-26T07:44:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T07:44:05","slug":"nagorno-karabakh-at-least-20-killed-and-hundreds-injured-after-blast-at-fuel-depot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2023\/09\/26\/nagorno-karabakh-at-least-20-killed-and-hundreds-injured-after-blast-at-fuel-depot\/","title":{"rendered":"Nagorno-Karabakh: at least 20 killed and hundreds injured after blast at fuel depot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At least 20 people have been killed and almost 300 injured in a powerful explosion at a fuel storage depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as thousands of\u00a0ethnic Armenians streamed out of the breakaway territory\u00a0after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of it in a lightning offensive last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local Armenian authorities said 290 people were admitted to hospitals, dozens of them \u201cstill in critical condition\u201d after the blast at the facility near the regional capital of Stepanakert on Monday evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cause of the blast remains unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuters was able to pinpoint the location of the landscape, buildings and structures seen on satellite images of the fire as the region of Berkadzor, about 6 km (3.7 miles) outside Stepanakert, but was not able to verify the timing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dozens of people had been lining up at the facility where the blast occurred because they had been promised fuel \u2013 a scarcity during the 10-month blockade by Azerbaijan that has also led to desperate shortages of food and water \u2013 according to Nagorno-Karabakh\u2019s separatist authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Azerbaijani military\u00a0routed Armenian forces in a 24-hour blitz last week, forcing the separatist authorities to agree to lay down weapons and start talks on Nagorno-Karabakh\u2019s \u201creintegration\u201d into Azerbaijan after three decades of separatist rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While\u00a0Azerbaijan\u00a0has pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians in the region and restore supplies after a 10-month blockade, many local residents feared reprisals and decided to leave for Armenia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Armenian government said that more 13,550 Nagorno-Karabakh residents had fled to Armenia as of Tuesday morning. Moscow said that Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh were assisting the evacuation. About 700 people remained in the peacekeepers\u2019 camp on Monday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The explosion took place hours after the second round of talks between Azerbaijani officials and separatist representatives were held in the town of Khojaly, just north of the Nagorno-Karabakh capital. The first round\u00a0was held last week. Azerbaijan\u2019s presidential office said in a statement that the talks were held \u201cin a constructive atmosphere\u201d and that discussion focused on humanitarian aid to the region and medical services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Azerbaijan\u2019s defense ministry said on Monday that two of its soldiers were killed a day earlier when a military truck hit a landmine. It didn\u2019t name the area where the explosion occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an address to the nation Sunday, Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said his government was working with international partners to protect the rights and security of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf these efforts do not produce concrete results, the government will welcome our sisters and brothers from Nagorno-Karabakh in the Republic of Armenia with every care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian peacekeepers have been in the region since 2020, when a Russian-brokered armistice ended a six-week war between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pashinyan and many others in Armenia accused the peacekeepers of failing to prevent the hostilities and protect the Armenian population. Moscow has rejected the accusations, arguing that its forces had no legal grounds to intervene, particularly after Pashinyan\u2019s recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least 20 people have been killed and almost 300 injured in a powerful explosion at a fuel storage depot in the Nagorno-Karabakh region as thousands of\u00a0ethnic Armenians streamed out of the breakaway territory\u00a0after the Azerbaijani military reclaimed full control of it in a lightning offensive last week. Local Armenian authorities said 290 people were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":38142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[11261,6850,7138,10356,12157,8952,11583,9203,8854,6159,6496,6569,2264,5328,8251,11111,10954,9515,9122,5572,5340,10712,7964,9374,11377,3174,13301,5217,9205,5655,5618,2485,5251,8869,5724],"class_list":["post-38141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-accused","tag-aid","tag-armenia","tag-armistice","tag-azerbaijani","tag-blast","tag-capital","tag-evacuation","tag-explosion","tag-fire","tag-food","tag-fuel","tag-government","tag-hospitals","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-injured","tag-international","tag-killed","tag-landmine","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-nagorno-karabakh","tag-north","tag-population","tag-presidential","tag-prime-minister","tag-results","tag-russian","tag-satellite","tag-security","tag-soldiers","tag-truck","tag-war","tag-water","tag-weapons"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38141"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38143,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38141\/revisions\/38143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}