How Azerbaijanis took Shusha (Through the eyes of the French)

The Azerbaijani city of Shusha was captured practically in hand-to-hand combat, without any drones or modern technology.

Correspondents of the French newspaper Le Monde in Khankendi (Stepanakert) write that the wounded are brought from Shusha mainly with bullet and knife wounds. Not with machine guns or rifle wounds, but with pistol and knife wounds. This means that the city was taken almost in close hand-to-hand combat. That is, the mountain special forces worked. Moreover, during the offensive, climbing the mountain, the Azerbaijanis did not leave the wounded and killed on the battlefield – they were also raised to the fortress, Vestnik Kavkaza writes.

Shusha, located at an altitude of 1400 m to 1800 m above sea level, is located on a cliff and is considered an impregnable fortress. The forces of special and mountain infantry units of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan on the night of November 3-4, making their way into the city from the side of the village of Dashalti and from the side of the green hill adjacent to the village of Garibali, having destroyed four posts of Armenian units, occupied the Old Fortress in the city itself and the Shusha prison… Having repulsed several attacks, the special forces began to expand the bridgehead in the city with battles.

Outside the city, several groups of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces took control of the Khankendi-Shusha road under fire control. Azerbaijani units held out in the city for two days. The Armenian forces in the city were being annihilated by special forces without the support of armoured vehicles.

By the evening of November 6, motorised rifle units of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces approached the city and on the night of November 7, they completely drove the Armenian units out of the city. Several attempts at counterattacks by the Armenian Armed Forces did not lead to anything.