Dozens of people are reported to have been killed and more than 200 wounded in Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan launched what it described as an “anti-terrorist operation” after months of rising tensions in the disputed South Caucasus region, writes The Guardian.

Azerbaijan’s presidential administration said the attacks would continue until “illegal Armenian military formations” surrendered and the separatist government of Nagorno-Karabakh dismantled itself.

Although Nagorno-Karabakh is internationally recognised as Azerbaijani territory, part of it is run by separatist Armenian authorities who say the area is their ancestral homeland. The region has been at the centre of two wars – the latest in 2020 – since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Nagorno-Karabakh human rights ombudsman Geghan Stepanyan said 27 people, including two civilians, had been killed and more than 200 wounded since the attacks began on Tuesday. According to Stepanyan’s earlier statements, one child was among the dead, while 11 children had been injured.

The Azerbaijani prosecutor general’s office said Armenian forces fired at Shusha, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh under Azerbaijan’s control, using large-calibre weapons, killing one civilian.

Neither claim could be independently verified.

Ethnic Armenian officials in Nagorno-Karabakh said the region’s capital of Stepanakert and other villages were “under intense shelling”. The region’s military said Azerbaijan was using aircraft, artillery and missile systems and drones in the fighting.

Video from the city showed a damaged residential building with shattered windows and damaged cars nearby.

Residents of Stepanakert moved to basements and bomb shelters, and the fighting cut off electricity. Food shortages persisted in the area, with the limited amount of humanitarian aid delivered on Monday not distributed due to the shelling, which resumed in the evening after halting briefly in the afternoon.