WORLD / Europe
Georgia says it was bombed by Russian jets
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-08-07 14:00
Jets flown from Russia fired an air-to-surface missile at Georgian
territory in an "act of aggression," Georgian Interior Minister Vano
Merabishvili said on Tuesday.
Russia, which has a long history of tense relations with the former
Soviet republic, denied that its airforce had flown missions in Georgian
air space.
"Our radars show that these jets flew from Russia and then flew back in
the same direction that they had come from ..." Merabishvili said.
"I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown
from the territory of another state," he added.
Georgian officials say the ordnance hit the village of Tsitelubani, about
65 km (40 miles) west of the capital, Tbilisi, but did not explode.
Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Georgian interior ministry's public
relations department, earlier told Reuters that the Russian jets had
dropped a 700 kilo (1,543 lb) bomb.
"Fortunately it didn't explode. If it had exploded it would have been a
disaster," he added. He said nobody was hurt.
Russia's airforce denied that it had bombed Georgia, and said it had not
violated its airspace.
"Russia's airforce neither on Monday nor Tuesday flew flights over
Georgia," Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky, the aide to the commander of
Russia's airforce, told Reuters.
"Russia has not violated the borders of sovereign Georgia."
The village of Tsitelubani is near the city of Gori, and a few kilometers
to the south of Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, a long-standing
cause of friction between Russia and Tbilisi.
Russia provides moral and financial support for Georgia's rebel Abkhazia
and South Ossetia regions. It has accused Tbilisi of pursuing
anti-Russian policies.
Georgia's previous administration, under ousted President Eduard
Shevardnadze, accused Russia in 2002 of sending fighter jets on sorties
over its territory, but Moscow denied any involvement.
At that time, Tbilisi alleged that Russian jets had dropped ordnance on
uninhabited areas of the remote Pankisi Gorge in north-east Georgia, near
the border with Russia.
Relations between Russia and Georgia deteriorated sharply again last year
when Tbilisi deported four Russian army officers, accusing them of spying.
Moscow responded by withdrawing its ambassador from Tbilisi and cutting
air, sea and postal links with Georgia. Russia also deported several
thousand Georgians, saying they were illegal immigrants.
Tension is still high but there have been tentative signs this year that
the crisis was easing. Moscow's ambassador has returned to Tbilisi and
the two sides have been in talks -- so far unsuccessful -- to restore air
links.
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