TBILISI, Georgia (AP) – Georgian authorities on Monday accused forces from the breakaway region in Abkhazia of shelling several Georgian-controlled villages, and said helicopters that entered Georgia’s airspace from Russia also opened fire in the region.
No injuries were reported in the incident, which occurred late Sunday in an upper section of the Kodori Gorge. The gorge was controlled by Abkhazia until July, when Georgian forces moved in and established a new local administration made up of people who had fled the fighting in Abkhazia in the 1990s.
Local government head Malkhaz Akishbaya told Georgian television that artillery shells fell near three villages.
Deputy Defense Minister Levan Anikoleishvili said, meanwhile, that military helicopters had entered Georgian airspace from Russia at around the same time and opened fire.
President Mikhail Saakashvili returned earlier than planned from a trip abroad because of the reported shooting, and held a meeting of his security council. Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili said he would call Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the alleged shooting.
A top Russian military official, Lt. Gen. Valery Yevnevich, denied that Russian helicopters were involved and called the accusations a “provocation,” Russian news agencies reported.
Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh denied any shooting.
“We do not have comprehensive information about the incident…. I can only say that the Abkhaz army did not open fire and our helicopters did not fly over that area,” he was quoted by Russia’s Interfax news agency as saying.
Abkhazia broke from Georgia in the early 1990s and has run its own affairs without international recognition, cultivating close ties with Russia, which has peacekeepers deployed there.
In an apparently unrelated incident, a Georgian Mi-24 helicopter crashed north of the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday morning, killing all three crew members. Defense Ministry spokeswoman Nana Intskirveli said bad weather may have caused the crash.
