New clashes broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia after U.S. talks

New clashes broke out between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces over Nagorno-Karabakh a day after talks in Washington to try to end the deadliest fighting in the enclave in more than a quarter of a century.

Azerbaijan’s defence ministry reported fighting in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous part of Azerbaijan populated and controlled by ethnic Armenians.

It said the areas of Lachin and Gubadli had come under rocket and artillery fire from inside Armenian terrritory.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, local officials accused Azerbaijan’s forces of firing Smerch missiles into residential buildings in Stepanakert, the largest city in the region, which Baku denied.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had met separately with the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday in a new attempt to end nearly a month of bloodshed that Russian President Vladimir Putin said may have killed 5,000 people.