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No heavy battles took place in the Artsakh-Azerbaijan conflict zone overnight, with only some small combat actions reported in separate directions of the contact line, the Armenian Defense Ministry representative Artsrun Hovhannisyan told a news conference on Thursday.

In his words, Azerbaijan attempted to carry out certain regroupings and movements of its soldiers at night, but after dawn the battles have become more intense. In fact, the directions of the hostilities have not changed, he added.

Hovhannisyan also cited the Artsakh Defense Ministry’s latest statement that the Defense Army had shot down another Azerbaijani attack helicopter and its wreckage had fallen on the territory of Iran.

“In general, as a result of the battles at night and in the early morning we have the following picture: all the adversary’s attack attempts, irrespective of their size and tactics, have failed. The Armenian forces have pushed back the enemy, causing some losses,” he said. “In particular, the enemy suffered some 350-360 losses in manpower and had 600 wounded servicemen. Three of its helicopters, including the one I just mentioned, were shot down, about 15 units of Azerbaijani armored vehicles, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and others were destroyed.”

The Armenian forces destroyed another Smerch multiple launch rocket system and downed 6 UAVs belonging to the Azerbaijani army, the military representative said.

“This is the situation. The military operations are going on with the use of artillery. I have just been told that the battles has started to heat up," Hovhannisyan said.