The Armenian Defense Ministry said the junior officer, Gurgen Alaverdian, had lost his way due to "extremely unfavorable weather conditions" as he was preparing to inspect an Armenian front-line position late on August 22.

The ministry did not say whether Alaverdian was near the Armenian-Azerbaijani border or the "line of contact" around Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan's breakaway region populated mostly by ethnic Armenians.

The Azerbaijani military disputed the Armenian account, saying its troops deployed in the Goranboy district north of Nagorno-Karabakh captured Alaverdian while fighting back an Armenian commando attack early on August 23.

Armenia and Azerbaijan conduct occasional exchanges of individuals in their respective custodies but long-running diplomatic talks have been largely stalled for over a year.

Days of deadly fighting that included artillery fire along a remote northern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in mid-July alarmed the international community and stoked deep national resentments in both countries.

It was the most serious bloodshed in at least four years in a history of incidents since a 1994 cease-fire ended major fighting that killed around 30,000 people but failed to resolve the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh's fate.