Azerbaijan Says It Destroyed Armenian MLRS, Media Understands It As RS-24 Yars ICBM

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On the morning of October 21^st, fighting along all positions in Nagorno-Karabakh is continuing between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Notably, Azerbaijan made some interesting claims that it had destroyed weapons that Armenia apparently doesn’t even have, including Hurricanes and RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles.

“Ay balam (baby), they said a thousand times that you are being deceived.

Either they take Hadrut, or I don’t know what, but now they have reported to you the types of weapons of the Armenian army. It has been said a thousand times that we have no Hurricanes.

But this is nothing, it turns out that we had an intercontinental ballistic missile “Yars”, but we did not know about it,” the representative of the Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

It should be mentioned that it was likely a misunderstanding, however, because President Ilham Aliyev mentioned it in a speech, and YARS in Azerbaijani actually means Multiple-rocket launcher system (MLRS).

RS-24 Yars ICBM. Click to see full-size image

BM-21 Grad MLRS, which was destroyed or a system similar to it. Clearly it has some differences from ICBMs and they are not easy to confuse. Click to see full-size

Which is showing for the level of reporting, since quite a few media outlets reported as if several Yars complexes had been destroyed.

According to Armenian media, clashes and artillery battles continued in some areas during the night.

In the morning Azerbaijan is shelling the city of Martakert and its surrounding villages.

One Azerbaijani aircraft was reportedly downed, but it’s unclear what it was.

“The Air Defence units of the Artsakh Defence Army shot down an adversary airplane at around 8:30 in the Southern Section.  The situation is relatively stable but tense,” Ministry of Defense spokesperson Shushan Stepanyan said.

On the previous day, official representative of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that the situation was relatively calm throughout October 20^th.

“There were intense fighting today. Especially in the south. More or less calm in the north. Attacks were made in the morning, but our attacks are repelled, and after that there is silence. I understand that they threw all their forces to the south. In the south today they approached the next line, but our forces repulsed the attack and threw the enemy back, moving forward a little. At the mouth of the Khakari River – ours are from the west, and they are from the east. Yesterday and today we shot down 2-3 Bayraktar.”

“In unconfirmed reports, 700-800 fighters of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces attacked an Armenian position in the north, but could not advance, retreated, leaving 200-300 corpses on the battlefield,” Representative of the Armenian Defense Ministry Artsrun Hovhannisyan said on the scale of the Azerbaijani military offensive.

Artsakh’s air defense units destroyed another Turkish attack drone Bayraktar TB2 of the opponent, the Artsakh Ministry of Defense.

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In the past 48 hours alone leading up to October 21, 27 Syrian militant mercenaries have been killed in the conflict zone in Artsakh, SOHR reports.

The total number of the killed mercenaries fighting on the side of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces has reached 161.

Armenian media accused Azerbaijan of using internationally prohibited weapons against the civilian population of Artsakh.

Close to Stepanakert, capital of Artsakh, there was found a cluster missile with more than 260 unexploded bombs fired by the Azerbaijani Air Forces. There is no military facility nearby the area where the rocket was found. People there are engaged in cattle breeding, gardening and beekeeping. The sappers of the Rescue Forces Department of SES will further destroy these malicious firearms.

Armenian and foreign independent reporters in Artsakh have filmed and covered the work of sappers these days.

A resolution recognizing the independence of the Republic of Artsakh was submitted to the US House of Representatives. The author of the resolution is member of the US House of Representatives Grace Napolitano.

On the Azerbaijani side, during the day on October 20 and on the night of October 21, the combat operations in the direction of Aghdere, Fizuli-Jabrayil, and Gubadli directions of the front continued with varying intensity. The enemy fired at our defensive positions using small arms, mortars, and howitzers.

As a result of the operations carried out by the Azerbaijani Army, the defending units of the 18th motorized rifle division of the Armenian armed forces in the Jabrayil and Gubadli directions of the front were forced to withdraw, losing personnel and military vehicles.

Enemy positions were seized in the defense area of the 5th mountain rifle regiment, a large number of weapons and ammunition were taken as trophies. The regiment’s chief of artillery, commander of artillery division, and commander of the 4th battalion together with the battalion’s military personnel were destroyed.

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