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South Ossetia under fire from Georgian territory
Published: 31 July, 2009, 00:49
TAGS: Arms, Breakaway regions, Conflict, Military, Georgia
One year since the military conflict in the Caucasus, it is feared that hostilities might resume. South Ossetian authorities claim the republic’s capital Tskhinval was attacked from a Georgian village.
Two shells were reportedly fired from around five kilometers away from the Georgian village of Nikozi during the night. Luckily, no one was injured, a source at the Ossetian Defense Ministry told Interfax agency.
This follows reports that one man has been killed and several people injured at the border between Georgia and South Ossetia.
According to a source at the South Ossetian information ministry, quoted by RIA Novosti agency, the shells targeted residential buildings.
The source added that it is the first case of Tskhinval coming under fire since the Georgian attack on South Ossetia in August last year.
At the same time, Tbilisi claims its village was also fired upon from South Ossetian territory.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has stated that fire was opened at around 11:30pm on Wednesday, targeting two villages – Khviti and Nikozi – and a police checkpoint. “Intensive shooting from assault rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers lasted for an hour.”
On Thursday, conflicting reports by Georgian TV channels say one man has been killed and three injured in a blast on the border with South Ossetia.
Eduard Kokoity, the South Ossetian president, says the blast was caused by mines laid by Georgians themselves along the border.
He says the mines are intended to stop Georgian nationals from returning to the republic.
“Many South Ossetian citizens of Georgian origin, who want to return to their homes, are forced to go around Georgian posts, and the Georgian side – in order to stop them from crossing to South Ossetia – has started mining the routes which bypass the posts,” explains Eduard Kokoity.
It is not known exactly who opened fire. Still, the Georgian village of Nikozy is only five kilometers from Tskhinval, which makes it an ideal spot for staging attacks on Tskhinval. This has been the first report of shelling between the two sides since the conflict last August when Georgian troops invaded South Ossetia.
On August 8, 2008 Georgia launched a military offensive against its breakaway republic of South Ossetia with an intense bombardment of, among other targets, the Russian peacekeepers’ headquarters and residential areas in Tskhinval.
Two days later, the attack was repelled by the Russian army. The war lasted less than a week and paved the way for the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
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Rick - yes these are all games with Russia, to provoke us, to keep us busy with interference..... But know one thing, Russians actually mean no harm to US people, include in that Putin and Medvedev, yes I know many people who feel absolute distrust of the US administration and would never, ever feel comfortable living there, but I also know many, myself included, who have been there, lived with the people and whilst still immensely distrustful of the US administration, can recognise great intrinsic qualities in the average hardworking American. Yes you have nutters, we have them too. But we face a simple situation, the US is trying to ruin Russia, and we are doing nothing to deserve it. Why is it going on, well its all down to the greenback in the end. We all know that countries don't work properly unless you separate the organs of state power, the executive, the legislature, the judicial arms. But what people didn't quite work out, is that with the onset of big time capitalism, came another organ of power, that of monetary wealth, and because we didn't realise it, it took control of the US government totally. Now add to this a country, Israel, which really has no basis to legally exist where it is, but has control of the capitalist wealth, which in turn has gontrol of the US government, who in turn have control over a 500 billion dollar a year military, and then it all fits into place. Israel have a problem, they have controls over the US to keep the problem stable. Now it doesn't end there, once you have control over the military machine, but you are financial people, why not use it to get hold of more wealth, after all it makes the tool dual use, and optimises the investemnt. As Russia is a source of these potential resources, they use the tool against it. Hence Russia does nothing, but still gets a constant attempt to steal from it. Simple as that. Don't take anything in this as anti sematic, Israel is entitled to exist through agreed political settlement.
America would benefit from having the leadership that Russia does today. Please do not think that all Americans are as stupid as those who run our state department and whitehouse. Many of us realize the aggression last year was due to Georgia initiating the attacks against Ossetia by the corrupt government that is financed and outfitted with Israeli and US support(it may be redundant to separate the two since everything Israel has is stolen or given to them by the US). This latest attack is to distract Russia from coming to the aid of Iran when they too are criminally attacked and no doubt destroyed by our madmen in Washington and our owners in Tel aviv. All that I can hope is that the Russian government will destroy Israel prior to attacking the US for some justified counterattack to an act of US stupidity and desperation. We are broke!and our dollar is not being used as before so we will be unpredictable for some time..
It looks like Israel is up to the SOS again. Unfortunately, its satrapy -- my country -- has to be drawn into it. I'm sure sick of it. George Washington was so correct in his farewell address to the nation. The word "expulsion" has taken on a whole new meaning for me.