Yerevan, Sept 28 (AFP/APP):At least 24 people have died after deadly clashes between arch foes Armenia and Azerbaijan, as the latest violence in the decades-long territorial dispute sparked international calls on Sunday to halt the fighting. The worst skirmishes since 2016 have raised the spectre of a fresh war between the ex-Soviet rivals, locked since the early 1990s in a stalemate over the Armenia-backed breakaway region of Nagorno Karabakh. Seventeen Armenian separatist fighters were killed and more than 100 wounded in the fighting, Karabakh President Arayik Harutyunyan said, conceding that his forces had “lost positions”. Both sides also reported civilian casualties. “We are tired of Azerbaijan’s threats, we will fight to the death to resolve the problem once and for all,” Artak Bagdasaryan, 36, told AFP in Yerevan, adding that he was waiting to be conscripted into the army. Karabakh separatists said one Armenian woman and a child were killed, while Baku said that an Azerbaijani family of five died in shelling launched by Armenian separatists. Azerbaijan claimed it captured a strategic mountain in Karabakh that helps control transport links between Yerevan and the enclave. Armenian defence ministry spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan in turn said Karabakh rebel forces killed “some 200 … Continue reading Dozens dead as world leaders urge halt to Azerbaijan-Armenia clashes