Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

South Ossetia, Georgia trade gunfire

Georgia, S. Ossetia Trade Charges Over Attack, Interfax Says

July 30 (Bloomberg) -- Georgia and the autonomous region of South Ossetia accused each other of carrying out an armed attack in a village near the region's capital, Tskhinvali, Interfax reported said, citing defense officials from both sides.

Georgian forces opened fire during the night with grenade launchers and machine guns in Tamarasheni, Interfax cited South Ossetia's Deputy Defense Minister Ibragim Gassiyev as saying. Shells struck Tskhinvali wounding two people, Irina Gagloyeva, the head of the region's information center, told Interfax.

South Ossetian gunmen started the incident late yesterday by firing on Georgian policemen in Tamarasheni, said Mikheil Kebadze, commander of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion in the region, according to Interfax. The police unit fired back, Kebadze said. There weren't any casualties in the incident, he said.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is moving to bring the country's autonomous regions under control of the central government in Tbilisi. South Ossetia, which has about 100,000 people, set up an autonomous pro-Russian government in the 1990s.

(Interfax 7-30)



Last Updated: July 29, 2004 22:02 EDT

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