Military Deserters Blamed in 8 Killings

A shooting spree by three soldiers who fled their base in southeastern Armenia left eight people dead, the Defense Ministry said in Yerevan, the capital. Military police arrested one of the soldiers, and a hunt for the others was underway. The rampage began Thursday when the three deserters grabbed Kalashnikov rifles from their base and stopped a car on a nearby road by shooting the driver and a passenger, the ministry’s press service said. The deserters later opened fire at a traffic police checkpoint and then on an army patrol, the ministry said. Two traffic police officers and three soldiers were killed. In a breach of army discipline, one of the soldiers on the patrol had taken his 6-year-old son to work with him Thursday. The boy also was killed in the shootout.