Shusha Operation of Special Forces - details of street fighting

"On the Shusha-Lachin road, our 17-man unit destroyed more than 200 Armenian servicemen," Shamsaddin Gurbanov, a former military officer of the Special Forces of the Defense Ministry of Azerbaijan, a veteran of the Second Karabakh War, told Report in Shusha.

According to Shamsaddin Gurbanov, on October 31, they received an order to advance from the Syghynag village of the Khojaly district in the direction of the Dashalti village of Shusha and took a position there. The main goal was not to disclose the secret "Shusha task":

"Already in the evening of November 3, we were ordered to advance along the bottom of the cliff and occupy the corridor of Lachin without entering Dashalti. On the morning of November 4, we reached the corridor of Lachin and took it under control. There were enemy trenches on the right and left sides. They wanted to catch us unprepared. However, due to the professionalism of our leading groups, as well as those supporting them from the rear, we completed the difficult task and succeeded in capturing the corridor of Lachin."

Shamsaddin Gurbanov said that until November 6, they advanced along the Shusha-Khankandi border through dense forests. As they advanced, it was possible to clearly hear the voices of the Armenians talking and humming songs:

"The enemy, using large-calibre weapons, was blindly firing into the wooded areas to detect us. They even burned forests using phosphorus shells. The enemy threw grenades at our 15-meter range. At this moment, I rushed forward to save my wounded comrade Tural Musayev. Later, we infiltrated behind the enemy and captured the military aid and supply vehicles that came to them, and in a ruthless battle, the enemy suffered about 100 casualties."

According to the Special Forces veteran, after 12 hours, on November 7, they captured the Shusha fortress and its surroundings. After the city was utterly cleared of Armenian militants, Azerbaijan's glorious tricolor flag was raised in Shusha and reported to Mr. Commander-in-Chief:

"Before entering the fortress on November 6, 20 people were martyred and 70 people were wounded. On November 7, my dear comrade Mehrab Niftaliyev, the Hero of the Patriotic War, was seriously injured. When he was injured, he said that he missed his children and wanted to see them. He asked for water, but I could not give it because we had nothing left under the rain of bullets. On November 8, Mehrab rose to the peak of martyrdom. My other comrade-in-arms, Malikzade Farhad, was also martyred next to me."

Ziya Hasanli, another Special Forces veteran, also fought for the freedom of the city. He said that when they entered Shusha, they observed that the enemy had enough armoured combat equipment and personnel:

"At the beginning of the battle, we destroyed the Armenian personnel and several vehicles with anti-tank means. After entering Shusha, we had no anti-tank shells left to respond to the enemy's attacks. We made incendiary devices using gasoline we removed from the captured equipment and civilian vehicles and threw them into the tanks. While conducting reconnaissance inside Shusha, we found their military unit and seized a large amount of ammunition, military equipment, as well as an anti-tank guided missile complex."

The Special Forces veteran also talked about the moment he hit an enemy tank. He said that the Armenians left the missile complex in Shusha and run away. Ziya Hasanli took that rocket, climbed to the third floor of one of the destroyed buildings by the enemy, and took a position there.

He observed his target in the so-called "3 roads" area of Shusha:

"When 3 Armenian tanks arrived, I let go of the first two tanks and hit the last one, and my shot was successful. After our other units destroyed other equipment of the enemy, our combat determination increased even more. Unfortunately, we lost my comrades-in-arms, senior lieutenant Khayyam Azizov and ensign Ramig Taghiyev. Khayyam Azizov was martyred on his birthday - November 8. Ensign Ramig Taghiyev was martyred as a result of enemy fire after giving first aid to our wounded comrade and evacuating him."