STEPANAKERT (RFE/RL) — Nagorno-Karabakh’s army claimed to have shot down an Azerbaijani military drone on Tuesday, April 21.
In a statement, the Defense Army said the Israeli-made drone was hit by one of its air-defense units early in the afternoon immediately after entering its airspace over a southern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani “line of contact” around Karabakh. It promised to release photographs of the wreckage the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) later.
The statement also said that Azerbaijani warplanes, combat helicopters and UAVs have carried out more frequent flights near the heavily fortified frontline of late. It claimed that Azerbaijani drones have also repeatedly attempted to cross into Armenian-controlled territory “for intelligence-gathering purposes” and urged Baku to avoid such “provocative steps.”
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry did not immediately react to the claim.
An Israeli company, Aeronautics Defense Systems, manufactures several types of Orbiter UAVs, including light-weight systems designed for reconnaissance missions and heavier attack drones.
The Karabakh army did not specify which one of them it shot down. It had claimed to have destroyed an Orbiter 2 reconnaisance drone in September 2019.
