The armed forces of Armenia have continued to target the civilian population, private houses and other civilian infrastructure in residential areas along the line of contact in a gross violation of its obligations under international humanitarian law, including the 1949 Geneva Conventions. 

 

Civilian facilities, such as hospitals, medical centers, school buildings, kindergartens as well as graveyards have been subjected to indiscriminate shelling of armed forces of Armenia, including from artillery and other large-caliber weaponry. 

As of 07 October, totally 28 civilians, including children and elderly have been killed, 144 civilians have been hospitalized with various injuries as a consequence of heavy artillery shelling. More than 427 houses and 66 civilian facilities have been destroyed as a result of armed attack. Vehicles belonging to civilians became unserviceable, and numerous small and large horned animals and haystacks were destroyed as well.

The Armenian armed forces, using missiles and large-caliber artillery systems, have been deliberately targeting Yevlakh, Goranboy, Beylagan Tartar, Barda, Aghdam, Aghjabadi, Fuzuli and Jabrayil districts of Azerbaijan. As a result of bombarding Tartar region, Mammadov Hasan Asif, born in 1981, a resident of Gaynag village, was killed. Aliyev Dayanat Ganimat, born in 1989, a resident of the same village, and Hasanov Seyfulla Yagub, born in 1968, a resident of Kocharli village, were hospitalized with various injuries.

 

On October 6, 2020, at about 6:30 pm, the armed forces of Armenia, using massively destructive methods of warfare and weapons prohibited by the international law, launched missiles at Aran settlement of Yevlakh region by targeting non-military, clearly visible crude oil and condensate export pipelines, located at least 50 kilometers away from the area of military operations. 

 

The 9M525 Smerch rocket, which has a large destructive power and contains 300 9N235 bombs (cluster munition), was neutralized in the air by Azerbaijan Armed Forces. As a result, some of bombs inside the rocket hit the 42-inch-diameter south Caucasus Expanded Pipeline in Aran settlement, Yevlakh region. Some of bombs also scattered 120 meters around from the Western Export Pipeline, which transports crude oil to the Black Sea coast, and other parts were scattered 100 meters from the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan Oil Pipeline passing through the settlement. 

 

Thus, by planning and waging an aggressive war against the Republic of Azerbaijan, a terrorist crime was committed by the Armenia’s armed forces, which attempted deliberately destroy a large number of critical infrastructure, facilities and other property, creating dangerous conditions for oil-exporting and high-capacity crude oil and condensate export pipelines, which could inflict significant damage to human, environment and property. 

 

Below are the photo evidences of the humanitarian law violations by the armed forces of Armenia.

Civilian properties destroyed by missile attack in Fuzuli:

        

The Smerch 9M525 fragmentation missiles fired by the Armenian armed forces