Georgian snipers shot dead three people in one of its separatist-held regions, officials in South Ossetia said on Friday.
South Ossetia’s separatist President Eduard Kokoity laid responsibility for the alleged attack on the US and Ukraine, which he said supplied the weapons, and warned of reprisals.
“Georgia has declared sniper war on the Republic of South Ossetia and again has attempted to spark a full-scale war,” Kokoity said, the unofficial republic’s Web site said. “The Ossetian side until now has withheld itself from retaliatory measures. It will not do this any longer.”
A Georgian official refused to comment on the specific allegations, saying only that “we needed to return fire” after a town outside the separatist region had come under shelling earlier on Friday.
Lana Parastayeva, a spokeswoman for South Ossetia’s media committee, said sniper fire and subsequent shelling lasted three hours and came from a Georgian military platoon. A policeman was among the dead, she said.
Parastayeva said the region’s military forces had already begun returning fire on the supposed locations of the Georgian platoon.
Attacks in and around South Ossetia are frequent. Both sides typically accuse the other of starting the violence.
“Today the South Ossetian side blew up a police car. As a result six policemen were injured,” Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.
Georgian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Nana Instkerveli said a “bandit group” had opened fire on Georgian peacekeepers stationed outside South Ossetia.
As a result of those attacks, she said, Georgia was forced to return fire.
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