South Osetian units, Cossacks dislodged

One soldier was killed and four were wounded as a result of the fire opened by the Osetian side in the conflict zone on the night of August 16-17. As reported by parliamentarian Guram Vakhtangishvili, the Osetian side violated the August 13 ceasefire agreement at 11 p.m. yesterday. The gun-fire came from the direction of the villages of Sarabuki and Kokhati. For the most part, positions of the Georgian Interior Troops stationed in the conflict zone and the village of Eredvi were under fire. Five shells reached the village. According to Mr Vakhtangishvili, there were no casualties among civilians.

After the Georgian side had returned fire, Osetian units and groups of Cossacks left the village of Kheiti, the headquarters under the command of Georgian Interior Minister Irakly Okruashvili announced today. According to the headquarters, after the return fire from the Georgian side, the Osetian units and groups of Cossacks left the hills in the Kheiti village, from which they had controlled roads in the Maloye Liakhvi Gorge. Being in a hurry, they were not able to take away ammunition and left it. It was exactly the hills of Kheiti from where Georgian villages had been shelled in recent days, the headquarters reported.

The agreement on the cessation of fire in the zone of the Georgian-Osetian conflict was singed on August 13.