Three Killed In Shooting In South Ossetia
August 12, 2004
12 August 2004 -- Georgian police say that at least three people were killed and several wounded overnight in shooting in the Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia.
Police said the dead, all on the Georgian side, were killed near the Georgian village of Eredri.
The independent television channel Rustavi-2, which carried the same information, also said that another person had been killed and several wounded when a mortar shell fell on a hospital in the Tamarasheni area on the Georgian side.
Earlier today, South Ossetia said Georgian forces shelled "several" villages in the separatist province, in the second consecutive day of fire in the area.
Late last night, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he is doing everything possible to prevent a "large-scale conflict" with South Ossetia.
Saakashvili has vowed to gain control over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Both republics seceded from Georgian central government control in the early 1990s.
(AP/AFP)