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EXCLUSIVE Nagorno-Karabakh: the video that proves the use of phosphorus weapons

Azerbaijani forces used white phosphorus ammunition on the Nagorno-Karabakh front, an incendiary weapon that can cause serious burns, said Point a French doctor who operates on wounded Armenian soldiers.

Patrick Knipper, orthopedic surgeon of the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP) and specialist in severe burns, is in Yerevan as part of a French assistance mission to help local doctors in the treatment of the injured who arrive from the front.

He assures that the young soldier of 19, visible on the video recorded by the Point, in the Austrian Armenian Rehabilitation Center hospital in Yerevan, was hit by phosphorus ammunition on the Martuni frontline a week ago.

“We see a lot of burn people (…) who describe us having rain that fell on them, which made us strongly evoke phosphorus burns, explains Dr Knipper. These are lesions which continue to progress, which are very deep (…). Above all (…), all of these burned patients here have hypocalcemia (…), which is strongly suggestive of phosphorus burns. These are fairly deep burns, third degree, with metabolic disorders (…) and sudden deaths that are characteristic. »Hypocalcemia is a lack of calcium that can lead to death.

First independent confirmation of the use of this ammunition

The two sides have been accusing each other for several days of using phosphorus ammunition in the conflict. The spokeswoman for the Armenian Ministry of Defense, Chouchan Stepanian, had denounced on October 31 the use of such ammunition by Azerbaijan. The ministry had released a video showing white spray falling on a wooded area in flames. Conversely, a senior Azerbaijani official, Hikmet Hajiyev, denounced on Twitter the use of phosphorus by Yerevan, near Shusha, “to blur the vision of the drones used by the Azerbaijani army. ”

The testimony of Dr Knipper collected by Point is the first independent confirmation of the use of these particularly dangerous munitions – but which are not cataloged by international law as chemical weapons. Accordingly, such incendiary ammunition may be held in military arsenals, but under no circumstances used against civilians.

Phosphorus has been used in several recent conflicts, notably in Syria by the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but also by the Russian army during the two Chechen wars as well as by the American forces in Vietnam. Turkish forces have been accused of using it against Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, which Ankara has denied.

Since the intensive resumption of fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh on September 27, Azerbaijani forces have regained ground, mainly in the south of the territory. Their advance threatens to cut a vital road that connects Armenia to Stepanakert, the capital of Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia, which maintains a military base in Armenia, last week mentioned a death toll of around 5,000 so far.

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