Armenia shows off powerful ballistic missiles at parade

YEREVAN, Armenia – Armenia has proudly showed off state-of-the-art Russian ballistic missiles at a military parade marking its independence day.

The Iskander missiles displayed Wednesday are capable of striking targets up to 300 kilometers (186 miles) with high precision, adding muscle to the Armenian military amid tensions over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh is officially part of Azerbaijan, but since a separatist war ended in 1994 it has been under the control of forces that claim to be local ethnic Armenians but that Azerbaijan claims include regular Armenian military. Efforts to negotiate a settlement have failed.

An outbreak of fighting in April killed about 75 soldiers from both sides.

Russia has a military base in Armenia, which is a member of Moscow-dominated economic and security alliances. But Russia also has sold weapons to Azerbaijan.