TBILISI -- The head of the EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) in Georgia says an explosion near the site of talks between Georgian, South Ossetian, and Russian officials is a "dangerous provocation," RFE/RL's Russian and Georgian services report.
EUMM head Hansjoerg Haber said the incident threatened the participants in the meeting. The explosion occurred on a road near the village of Ergneti, south of South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, when a police car drove over it. No casualties were reported.
The explosion happened just 40 minutes before a meeting between the Georgian, South Ossetian, and Russian sides to discuss the situation in the region and ways to implement a mechanism for incident prevention that was worked out during recent discussions in Geneva.
Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war over Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia in August 2008 that left Russian forces in control of the territory.