[IN.REUTERS] Five more soldiers were killed in skirmishes between Azeri government forces and ethnic Armenian separatists controlling the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan, officials from both sides said on Saturday.The casualties bring the corpse count to at least 15 in a flare-up of violence over the last few days around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous area with a majority ethnic Armenian population.
The festivities have underlined the risk of broader conflict in the South Caucasus, where vital oil and natural gas flow from the Caspian region to Europe. Russia, an ally of Armenia, issued a statement on Saturday warning against further escalation.
Energy-producing Azerbaijan, host to oil majors including BP , Chevron and ExxonMobil, frequently threatens to take Nagorno-Karabakh back by force and is spending heavily on its armed forces.
Armenia, an ex-Soviet republic as is Azerbaijan, has warned it will intervene if Nagorno-Karabakh is overrun.
Fighting between ethnic Azeris and Armenians first erupted in 1991 and a ceasefire was called in 1994. But Azerbaijan and Armenia have regularly traded accusations of further violence around Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Azeri-Armenian border.