Azerbaijan on Sunday marked six years since a nighttime ballistic-missile strike on a residential area of Ganja killed 10 civilians and wounded dozens during the 2020 war.
The missile exploded at about 1:50 a.m. on Oct. 11, 2020, between Alakbar Bey Rafibeyli Street and Heydar Aliyev Avenue. The attack occurred less than a day after a humanitarian ceasefire took effect.
APA reported that 10 people, including five women, were killed and 35 were wounded, among them six children and 16 women. Human Rights Watch, whose researchers inspected the site and reviewed satellite imagery, recorded 34 wounded. The one-person difference reflects separate casualty reports; both sources put the death toll at 10.
Human Rights Watch documented a large crater and more than 20 buildings that were destroyed or damaged. It said a Scud-B ballistic missile was used and described the launch of an inaccurate, highly destructive weapon into a densely populated area as an indiscriminate and unlawful attack.
One of Five Attacks on Ganja
According to Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor General’s Office, Ganja came under missile and artillery fire on Oct. 4, 5, 8, 11 and 17, 2020. Those attacks killed a total of 26 civilians and wounded 175.
Human Rights Watch said military facilities were located in different parts of the city but stressed that their presence did not permit the use of weapons in populated areas that could not distinguish military targets from civilian objects. Military positions identified in satellite images roughly 700 meters and one kilometer from the Oct. 11 impact site were not damaged, the organization said.
Azerbaijan remembers the Oct. 11 strike as one of the deadliest attacks on civilians during the 44-day war.
Sources: Vesti Baku; APA; Human Rights Watch; Azerbaijan Prosecutor General’s Office.