Azerbaijan says 2,783 of its soldiers killed in Karabakh conflict

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Azerbaijan said on Thursday that 2,783 of its soldiers were killed during its conflict with ethnic Armenian forces over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and that more than 100 of its troops were still missing. 

Azerbaijan had until now not disclosed any of its military losses in the conflict that erupted on Sept. 27 and came to a halt on Nov. 10 when a Russian-brokered peace deal ushered in a ceasefire. 

Swathes of territory in Nagorno-Karabakh previously controlled by ethnic Armenians were handed over to Azerbaijan, whose forces had captured territory including areas that Baku lost in an earlier war in the 1990s.

Armenia has not yet disclosed a final death toll for its military, but a health ministry official confirmed on Nov. 14 that 2,317 soldiers had been killed.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy in Moscow and Nvard Hovhannisyan in Yerevan; Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by John Stonestreet)