Three Georgian soldiers have been killed and five wounded in clashes in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, Rustavi 2 television reported early yesterday, quoting an unnamed official with the Georgian interior ministry.
Only one of the wounded could be evacuated from the combat zone, due to the intensity of the overnight fighting between Georgian and South Ossetian forces, Rustavi 2 said.
Georgian and South Ossetian forces overnight accused each other of trying to storm the other side's positions in the breakaway region.
South Ossetia's deputy defense minister late Tuesday said Georgian forces were mounting an assault on a village near the Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, Interfax news agency reported.
"Two Georgian armored units and a large quantity of infantry are attacking the village of Sarabuk," as well as other Ossetian positions nearby, Ibragim Gassiyev said. Georgian forces also shelled Tskhinvali, Gassiyev added early Wednesday.
But the local head of Georgian police told reporters that Ossetian forces were trying to storm a road linking villages populated by ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia to mainland Georgia.
"The Ossetians are launching an assault on this road. We are trying to return fire," Aleko Sukhitashvili said.
Georgia's defense minister said that, following the overnight fighting, there was no way Tbilisi would withdraw its forces from the conflict zone.
"After this night's shooting and attacks, there can be no question of any withdrawal of Georgian forces from the zone of conflict," Interfax quoted Georgi Baramidze as saying.
Earlier Tuesday, a Georgian soldier was killed and three others were wounded as both Georgian and South Ossetian officials blamed an unnamed "third hand" for stoking the conflict.
"Today military from both sides looked for the so-called `batmen' in the conflict zone," said Lev Mironov, a Russian representative in a joint commission trying to mediate the conflict.
"They need to be captured by joint efforts and be put behind bars or destroyed," Mironov said.
Baramidze said that "there is a well-prepared armed group of about 15-20 people in the conflict zone -- the South Ossetian side agrees with this. During the night they shoot at positions of both sides, trying to provoke all-out war."
Said South Ossetian representative Boris Chochiyev: "There is a third side that wants war and we must neutralize them together with Russian peacekeepers."
The spiraling violence in the volatile region prompted Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili to call for international peacekeepers to provide security for civilians and ensure that conditions for talks on a permanent settlement were met.
"An international peacekeeping operation that is balanced and takes into consideration Georgia's Euro-Atlantic partners should be mandated in South Ossetia to provide security for the population and ensure the conditions for political negotiations towards a lasting settlement," Saakashvili said in an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal Europe.
Tuesday's clashes also led to a telephone conversation between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as US diplomats met with Russian and Georgian officials in an effort to cool tensions, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS