LACHIN CORRIDOR: Azerbaijani border guards on Tuesday sought out "war crime" suspects in a sea of Armenian refugees flooding out of Nagorno-Karabakh after Baku claimed control of the separatist statelet in a lightning offensive last week.
The number of people who entered Armenia along the so-called Lachin Corridor following the operation has now surpassed 19,000, and was growing one day after a massive fuel blast on the edge of the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert rose to 20.
The toll threatened to rise because dozens were being treated in critical condition and many remained unaccounted for.
Most of them were stocking up on fuel for the trip down the only road connecting the impoverished and historically disputed region with Armenia.
Yerevan has warned of possible "ethnic cleansing" by Azerbaijan after Baku launched a 24-hour blitz that forced the rebels to agree to disarm last Wednesday.
Armenians and Azerbaijanis have fought two deadly wars over the mountainous territory since the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse.
The area is now populated by up to 120,000 ethnic Armenians but is internationally recognised as part Azerbaijan.
The bad blood between the sides runs deep, with the first war in particular witnessing alleged massacres of civilians and gross human rights abuses by both sides.
A team allowed to access the Lachin Corridor on an Azerbaijani government-organised tour saw that most of the people crossing the border were women, children and the elderly.
The few Armenian men in their 20s and 30s coming out Tuesday were forced to stare into a camera for identification at the last Azerbaijani border post.
"Azerbaijan intends to apply an amnesty to Armenian fighters who laid down their arms in Karabakh," an Azerbaijani government source said.
Adding to the humanitarian drama, the separatist government on Tuesday said 13 bodies were found at the scene of a fuel depot blast on Monday and seven more people had died of their injuries.
It said 290 people had been hospitalised and "dozens of patients remain in critical condition".
Armenia's health ministry said it had sent a team of doctors to the rebel stronghold of Stepanakert by helicopter.
The Azerbaijani presidency said Baku had also sent medicine to help the wounded, and opened a special humanitarian corridor for Red Cross teams.
The European Union pledged to provide five million euros in humanitarian assistance. — AFP
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