Twenty-five killed, 138 wounded in Azerbaijan offensive in Karabakh -separatist official

A still image from video, published by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defence, shows what it said to be an attack and neutralization of the military radio-technical node of the units of the armed forces of Armenia in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in this image taken from video published September 19, 2023. Azerbaijan's Ministry of Defence/Handout via REUTERS

(Reuters) - A separatist Armenian human rights official in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh said 25 people had been killed there on Tuesday as a result of an Azerbaijani military offensive.

Two of the dead were civilians, Gegham Stepanyan said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Stepanyan added later that 138 people, including 29 civilians, had been wounded. Reuters could not verify his information.

Azerbaijan sent troops into Armenian-controlled Karabakh, internationally recognised as part of its own territory, earlier on Tuesday in an attempt to bring the region to heel by force, raising the threat of a new war with neighbour Armenia.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Mark Heinrich)