Sat, August 02, 2008
MOSCOW, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Russia has urged Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia to show restraint and search for ways to peacefully settle the conflict, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
"Russia is seriously concerned over the escalation of tensions in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone and is taking emergency steps to prevent further violence between the conflicting sides," the ministry said in a statement.
At least six people were killed and 15 others wounded on the South Ossetian side in a series of fire attacks, which began on Friday evening and went on until Saturday morning, along the border between Georgia and South Ossetia.
According to the South Ossetian side, the armed clashes were started by Georgia. The unrecognized republic said its troops were on high alert and it might declare general mobilization if Georgia continued to provoke.
However, the commander of Georgia's peacekeeping force in the region, Mamuka Kurashvili, said South Ossetian forces had shot at a Georgian village first before Georgian soldiers returned fire.
South Ossetia, along with another breakaway republic Abkhazia, broke away from Georgia in the 1990s following the collapse of the former Soviet Union. But their self-proclaimed independence has not been internationally recognized.
Tensions have been running high between Georgia and its breakaway regions, which have seen several explosions and border clashes in recent months.
