Azerbaijan, rebels trade blame over violence, 1 dead

Azerbaijan and Armenia have accused each other of triggering clashes that have now killed a total of nine people on both sides, prompting the worries over a resumption of fighting in a region criss-crossed by energy pipelines to Europe.

Mainly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh, which broke away from Muslim Azerbaijan with the help of Christian Armenia as the Soviet Union collapsed, accused Baku of trying to infiltrate three rebel military positions, prompting the skirmish in which one soldier died.

"Subdivisions of the Nagorno-Karabakh army entered into a defensive battle and threw the enemy back to their original position. As a result of the battle on the Armenian side one sergeant died and two men were injured," the statement from the rebel military said.

Oil-producing Azerbaijan, host to oil majors including BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil, frequently threatens to take the mountain enclave back by force, and is spending heavily on its armed forces.

Clinton, who visited Armenia on Monday, voiced concern that the violence between Azerbaijan and Armenia could lead to a "much broader conflict".

Azerbaijan's Defence Ministry said Armenian forces had violated a ceasefire along their shared border on two occasions since late Tuesday, but its forces suffered no losses.

War between ethnic Azeris and Armenians erupted in 1991 over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. A ceasefire was signed in 1994, but sporadic violence still flares along Azerbaijan's borders with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh has run its own affairs with the heavy military and financial backing of Armenia since the war, when Armenian-backed forces seized control of the enclave and seven surrounding Azeri districts forming a land corridor with Armenia.

(Reporting By Hasmik Mkrtchyan and Lada Yevgrashina, Writing by Thomas Grove)