Azerbaijan claims seizing key Nagorno-Karabakh city

Azerbaijan's defence ministry on Monday shared foot of city of Shushi, which it claims to have captured.

President Ilham Aliyev said Sunday that Azerbaijani forces h taken control of strategically important city in Nagor-Karabakh, where fighting with Armenia has rd for over a month.

Shushi is of significant military value because it sits on heights about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of region's capital of Stepanakert and lies along main ro connecting Nagor-Karabakh with Armenia.

Along with its strategic value, Shushi is culturally significant as a onetime center of Azerbaijani culture, ted for music and poetry.

Armenian authorities said its forces repelled attacks targeted at towns of Martuni, Martakert and Tagavard.

Nagor-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenian government since 1994 at end of a separatist war following breakup of Soviet Union three years earlier.

latest outbreak of fighting started on September 27 and has left hundreds, if t thousands, de.