15 soldiers killed, 7 injured after fire broke at Armenia’s military barracks
The Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan confirmed the news in a statement during a Cabinet meeting. Armenia is still recovering from a 2020 war with Azerbaijan, which ended in a heavy defeat and sparked a political crisis. The Gegharkunik region borders Azerbaijan, which has been locked in a decades-long conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
YEREVAN-(MaraviPost)-Armenian military servicemen have died and seven others injured after fire broke out in the barracks of one of the local armed forces units on Thursday, January 19, 2022.
The Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan confirmed the news in a statement during a Cabinet meeting.
“Preliminary information indicates that 15 servicemen were killed as a result of a fire that broke out in the barracks of an engineer and sniper company of a military unit… and the condition of three servicemen is assessed as serious,” said the ministry in a statement.
The AP report indicated that the blaze erupted after soldiers used gasoline to fuel a stove in the village of Azat, in Armenia’s eastern Gegharkunik region.
In response to the tragedy, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has fired Gen. Vagram Grigoryan, who was in charge of a group of forces in the region alongside several other officers.
Armenia is still recovering from a 2020 war with Azerbaijan, which ended in a heavy defeat and sparked a political crisis.
The Gegharkunik region borders Azerbaijan, which has been locked in a decades-long conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Last August, more than a dozen people were killed in an explosion and subsequent fire at a busy market in Armenia’s capital Yerevan.