Three Georgian soldiers have been killed and five wounded in clashes in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, Rustavi 2 television reported early yesterday, quoting an unnamed official with the Georgian interior ministry.
Only one of the wounded could be evacuated from the combat zone, due to the intensity of the overnight fighting between Georgian and South Ossetian forces, Rustavi 2 said.
Georgian and South Ossetian forces overnight accused each other of trying to storm the other side's positions in the breakaway region.
South Ossetia's deputy defense minister late Tuesday said Georgian forces were mounting an assault on a village near the Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, Interfax news agency reported.
"Two Georgian armored units and a large quantity of infantry are attacking the village of Sarabuk," as well as other Ossetian positions nearby, Ibragim Gassiyev said. Georgian forces also shelled Tskhinvali, Gassiyev added early Wednesday.
But the local head of Georgian police told reporters that Ossetian forces were trying to storm a road linking villages populated by ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia to mainland Georgia.
"The Ossetians are launching an assault on this road. We are trying to return fire," Aleko Sukhitashvili said.
Georgia's defense minister said that, following the overnight fighting, there was no way Tbilisi would withdraw its forces from the conflict zone.
"After this night's shooting and attacks, there can be no question of any withdrawal of Georgian forces from the zone of conflict," Interfax quoted Georgi Baramidze as saying.
Earlier Tuesday, a Georgian soldier was killed and three others were wounded as both Georgian and South Ossetian officials blamed an unnamed "third hand" for stoking the conflict.
"Today military from both sides looked for the so-called `batmen' in the conflict zone," said Lev Mironov, a Russian representative in a joint commission trying to mediate the conflict.
"They need to be captured by joint efforts and be put behind bars or destroyed," Mironov said.
Baramidze said that "there is a well-prepared armed group of about 15-20 people in the conflict zone -- the South Ossetian side agrees with this. During the night they shoot at positions of both sides, trying to provoke all-out war."
Said South Ossetian representative Boris Chochiyev: "There is a third side that wants war and we must neutralize them together with Russian peacekeepers."
The spiraling violence in the volatile region prompted Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili to call for international peacekeepers to provide security for civilians and ensure that conditions for talks on a permanent settlement were met.
"An international peacekeeping operation that is balanced and takes into consideration Georgia's Euro-Atlantic partners should be mandated in South Ossetia to provide security for the population and ensure the conditions for political negotiations towards a lasting settlement," Saakashvili said in an op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal Europe.
Tuesday's clashes also led to a telephone conversation between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as US diplomats met with Russian and Georgian officials in an effort to cool tensions, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
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