Azerbaijan, Armenia clash amid diplomacy

Clashes continued in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region for a third day, during which Azerbaijan said Armenian forces killed three of its troops as it killed 30 Armenian troops after launching an attack on a command center, amid diplomatic efforts to ease the tension. 

The Azeri Defense Ministry said three servicemen were killed when Armenians shelled their positions using mortars and grenade launchers. The ministry later in the day said its forces had destroyed an Armenian command center in the region and had killed 30 Armenian troops, while also destroying three tanks. 

"In the event of continued Armenian provocations, we will launch a full-scale operation along the entire front line, using all kinds of weapons," ministry spokesman Vagif Dargahly told journalists.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said if the fighting continued on a large scale, his country would formally recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as independent from Azerbaijan and formalize Armenian military aid to the separatists.

Separately, the rebels, in a statement from their unrecognized capital of Stepanakert in Nagorno-Karabakh, said Azeri troops "intensified shelling of the Karabakh army positions on Monday [April 4] morning, using 152-millimeter mortars, rocket-propelled artillery and tanks."

In the Armenian capital of Yerevan, Defense Ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan said the rebels "seriously advanced at certain sectors of the front line and took up new positions." The report was quickly dismissed as "untrue" by Azerbaijan.

The Azeri Defense Ministry said it was in control of several strategic heights in Karabakh that were captured by Azeri troops on April 2.

Azerbaijan warned Armenia against targeting civilians in one of the...