However, Azerbaijan's defense ministry refuted the information about starting the attacks and clarified that the forces were only carrying out local counter-measured in retaliation for large-scale Armenian provocation.
Armenia also accused Azerbaijan of the shelling incident as Blinken appealed to end the fight that threatens to undermine a Russia-brokered ceasefire.
"The US is deeply concerned about the reports of shelling along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border, including strikes against settlements and civilian infrastructure inside Armenia. We urge an end to any military hostilities immediately," Blinken said in an official statement.
Adam Schiff, Chairman of House Intelligence Committee also condemned the attack and called it an ‘egregious violation’ of the ceasefire.
“Azerbaijan has reportedly shelled the homes of innocent civilians in Artsakh and is now attacking Armenia’s border. An egregious violation of the ceasefire and direct attack on Armenia’s sovereignty. The U.S. must halt all assistance to Azerbaijan - immediately and permanently," Adam Schiff tweeted.
This is the most recent flare-up in tensions between two neighboring Caucasus states since thousands were killed in a 44-day war over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh that ended in November 2020.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had a telephonic conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the fighting along the border. He then talked with Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron, his office said as quoted by Bloomberg.
The US, Russia, and France have been trying for decades to end the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that erupted during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Armenian PM also held a meeting of Armenia's security council which decided to appeal to Russia for assistance under a 1997 mutual-defense treaty. However, there was no immediate official response from Moscow.
Earlier, Russia sent 2,000 peacekeeping troops to the Nagorno-Karabakh border as part of the agreement to halt the 2020 war. The country already has a military base in Armenia.
In August, Azerbaijan’s army regained the town of Lachin, which sits along a road linking Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, for the first time in 30 years as part of the cease-fire deal. It took control of part of Nagorno-Karabakh and regained seven surrounding districts that had been occupied by Armenian troops since the 1990s.
Despite the cease-fire, Azerbaijan and Armenia have yet to reach a peace agreement and sporadic fighting has continued, even as the two sides have held talks to try to delineate their common border and open up transport routes. Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met on August 31 in Brussels to discuss progress in seeking to reach a peace agreement.
(With inputs from Bloomberg)
