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Three killed, more hurt as shooting and shelling roils Georgian region

At least three people were killed and several wounded Wednesday night in shooting in the Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia, Georgian local police told AFP by telephone.

The Georgian separatist region of South Ossetia early yesterday issued an ultimatum to Tbilisi after several people were injured as Georgian forces shelled Ossetia's capital and surrounding villages for the second night running, an Ossetian official said.

South Ossetian authorities would eliminate "illegal armed bands" from Georgian villages located in the zone of conflict if the shelling did not stop within 30 minutes, the head of South Ossetia's Information and Press Committee, Irina Gagloyeva, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Bombardment

After shelling Ossetian villages Wednesday night, Georgian forces started bombarding South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali early yesterday, the Interfax news agency reported.

Several South Ossetians were injured as a result of the shelling, Gagloyeva said.

In several South Ossetian villages, "civilians have been wounded, and buildings have been damaged," Interfax quoted Gagloyeva as saying.

Several South Ossetian soldiers were also injured, Gagloyeva told ITAR-TASS.

The exact number of people injured was not yet clear, she added.

"The Georgian side is using firearms, mortars and also anti-aircraft weapons," Interfax quoted her as saying.

South-Ossetia's acting defense minister Ibragim Gassiyev said Georgian forces were using heavy artillery, Interfax reported.

Georgia had yet to respond to the alleged incident, Interfax reported.

Recriminations

Shooting and shelling early Wednesday between Georgia and fighters in the pro-Russian separatist region, in which at least six people were injured, clouded talks in Moscow later in the day between Russia and Georgia on calming dispute?s on the status of South Ossetia. Each side accused the other of launching the attacks.

Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to win back control over South Ossetia and another Georgian separatist region, Abkhazia, which both broke away from Tbilisi after bitter fighting in the early 1990s.

Preventing Conflict

However, in remarks made after meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Rece?p Tayyip Erdogan, Saakashvili said late Wednesday he did not want Georgia to go through a "large-scale conflict."

"Some forces are engineering armed provocations, but Georgia will do everything so that no one can unleash a large-scale conflict," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted him as saying.
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