At least 30 soldiers have been killed in fighting between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces along the frontlines of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, officials of both the countries said as they reported the death tolls.

Both sides blamed the other for the fighting that began overnight.

Azerbaijan said on Saturday that Armenian forces killed 12 of its soldiers and shot down a helicopter.

"Twelve Azeri servicemen were killed in action and a helicopter was shot down by Armenian forces," Azerbaijan's defence ministry said in a statement, also claiming that Azeri forces took control of "two strategic heights and a village" in Karabakh.

Azeri troops, meanwhile, killed 18 ethnic-Armenian soldiers, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said.

"From our side 18 soldiers were killed and some 35 others wounded," Sarkisian said in a televised statement, not specifying if the soldiers belonged to Yerevan-backed separatist forces in Karabakh or Armenia's armed forces. 

The Armenian Defence Ministry spokesperson Artsrun Hovhannisyan wrote on a Facebook post that Armenian forces in the region shot down an Azeri military helicopter, a claim which Azerbaijan denied.

"Active combat is currently under way," Hovhannisyan said. "The Armenian Army has launched a counter-attack. There are victims on both sides but the opposing side has sustained huge losses in manpower and equipment. A [Azerbaijani] helicopter has been shot down." .

This could very easily turn into a proxy conflict between Turkey and Russia.

That k/d though

Spoiler