US calls for restraint between Armenia, Azerbaijan

The Biden administration is calling for restraint as fighting on the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan has killed about 100 troops between the two sides.. The border clash has fed fears of broader hostilities breaking out between the longtime adversaries. Armenia said at least 49 of its soldiers were killed; Azerbaijan said it lost 50.

"We've long said, but it remains, I think, important and it needs to be said again that there can be no military solution to this conflict," said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.

"We urge restraint from any further military hostilities, he said. The fighting erupted minutes after midnight with Azerbaijani forces unleashing an artillery barrage and drone attacks in many sections of Armenian territory, according to Armenia’s Defense Ministry. The ministry said fighting continued during the day despite Russia’s attempt to broker a quick cease-fire. Shelling grew less intense but Azerbaijani troops still were trying to advance into Armenian territory, it said.

The two countries have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994. At the White House, Kirby also provided an update on U.S. aid to Pakistan in the wake of devastating floods that have swept away entire villages, and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

"Yesterday, a total of nine aircraft run by U.S. Central Command delivered more than 400 tons of relief supplies," Kirby said. Last week, US AID administrator Samantha Power announced that the U.S. was providing $20 million in humanitarian assistance to support the people of Pakistan. "That brings to $53.1 million the total of our support this year just to support disaster resilience and flood response in Pakistan," Kirby said.

"With $50 million for emergency flood relief and $3 million in resilience programing," he said. Authorities said the overall death toll reached 1,481 on Tuesday, with 54 more people dying in rain-related floods in the past 24 hours, with the majority of those deaths in the hard-hit province of Sindh. Experts have said that climate change has been blamed in large part for the deluge, the worst in recent memory.