Azerbaijan says it shot down Armenian drone; Nagorno-Karabakh denies report

BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan said on Wednesday it had shot down an Armenian drone near the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, a report dismissed by separatists in the region. Renewed violence has broken this year along the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan and around Nagorno-Karabakh, which lies inside Azerbaijan but is controlled by its majority ethnic Armenians. The Azeri Defence Ministry said the drone DJI Inspire 1, a commercial vehicle designed for aerial photography, was shot down over Azeri positions near the breakaway region but Nagorno-Karabakh's defence ministry denied the report. "The information released today by the Azeri defence ministry, that supposedly Azeri armed forces shot down an Armenian drone, does not match reality," the separatists' ministry said in a statement. Fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh erupted in 1991 as the Soviet Union broke up and a ceasefire was called in 1994. But Azerbaijan and Armenia have regularly traded accusations of further violence around Nagorno-Karabakh and along their border. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Hasmik Mkrtchyan; Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Larry King)