Azerbaijan says soldier killed in clashes with Armenia

An Azerbaijani soldier has died in a shootout with Armenian forces, officials in Baku said yesterday, two weeks after the arch-foe countries held talks on easing tensions following their war last year.

The ex-Soviet Caucasus neighbours fought last autumn a six-week war over the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh which has claimed more than 6,500 lives.

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Hostilities ended last November with a Russian-brokered ceasefire under which Yerevan ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades.

Baku's defence ministry said an Azerbaijani soldier "was killed overnight as a result of a provocation by Armenia's armed forces" near the countries' shared border.