Updated

Azerbaijan's defense ministry says three of its troops have been killed in the past 24 hours in fighting with the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Vagif Dargyakhly, the ministry's spokesman, on Monday said the rebels were shelling Azerbaijian's positions and front-line villages despite a cease-fire his government unilaterally announced.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been under the control of local ethnic Armenian forces and the Armenian military since a war ended in 1994 with no resolution of the region's status. Fighting flared up there over the weekend with a boy and at least 30 troops killed on both sides on Saturday, the worst fighting since the end of a full-scale war in 1994.

Azerbaijan on Sunday said it has unilaterally ceased fire but the rebels in Nagorno-Karabakh said their positions were still under attack.