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| - Dozens of fighters in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan have been taken prisoner, separatist officials said Wednesday, testing a Russia-brokered peace accord that ended weeks of recent fighting. "Unfortunately, several dozen of our servicemen have been captured near Khtsaberd," Arayik Harutyunyan, the leader of the mountainous breakaway region, said on Facebook. A peace deal mediated by Moscow in November ended weeks of fierce fighting between Azerbaijan's army and the separatists, who ceded swathes of territory as part of the accord. Harutyunyan's announcement came after Russian peacekeepers in the disputed province reported at the weekend that fighting had broken out between the two sides in violation of the truce. Azerbaijan's defence ministry claimed Sunday that a group of Armenian fighters had stayed behind in disputed territory in the district of Hadrut and were launching attacks on its forces. It conceded that four Azerbaijani soldiers had been killed since the agreement came into effect November 10. The rights ombudsman in Nagorno-Karabakh, Artak Beglaryan, also said Wednesday that around 60 servicemen from different divisions had gone missing near the village of Khtsaberd in the Hadrut region. Armenia and Azerbaijan said earlier this week they had started swapping prisoners captured during the conflict that erupted at the end of september and claimed 5,000 lives, including civilians. Separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh claimed independence in a 1990s war that left around 30,000 people dead. No country, including Armenia, has recognised their claim to autonomy. France, Russia and the United States brokered a ceasefire in 1994 but failed to bring about a lasting political resolution to the territorial impasse. mkh-acl/jbr/txw
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