“Nearly 100%” of all injuries in Artsakh are explosion-related – Health Minister says

The overwhelming majority of the wounded civilians and servicemen in Artsakh have suffered explosion injuries, Armenian Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said at a news briefing.

“The overwhelming majority, nearly 100% of the injuries are explosion injuries and not gunshot wounds, because essentially this is an aerial, artillery or drone war,” he said.

He said the victims have numerous pieces of shrapnel in their bodies. He said the shrapnel or the direct force of the explosions are the cause of the injuries or death.

Torosyan said both civilian and military hospitals in Artsakh have sufficient medication and equipment, as well as blood bank.

“There are many doctors who volunteer to be dispatched to Artsakh to help their colleagues,” he said, noting that sometimes they deny the requests in order to keep the process regulated. “Tactical management is being done, whenever we see that we require a centralization of powers at a given time and that somewhere else the situation is calmer, we organize rapid transfers both inside Artsakh and from Armenia to Artsakh,” Torosyan said.

As of October 5 the number of civilian casualties as a result of Azeri bombardments of cities in Artsakh stood at 21, with 80 others wounded.

As of October 5, the number of Artsakhi servicemen to have been killed in action was 219. Authorities haven’t yet updated these numbers since October 5.