Georgia: shelling by Abkhazia kills a policeman

Last night, a Georgian policeman was killed in the zone of Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. The authorities of the Zugdidi District of Georgia assert that he was killed as a result of shelling a police post in the village of Ganmukhuri from the territory of the Galskiy District of Abkhazia.

Another Georgian policeman was wounded. Georgia has informed the mission of UN military observers and the command of collective peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone about the incident, the ITAR-TASS reports.

When speaking with the correspondent of the "Caucasian Knot," Laurens Kogonia, head of militia unit of the Galskiy District, had refuted the fact of shelling the police post in Ganmukhuri from the territory of the Galskiy District. According to the information at disposal of the law enforcement bodies of the Galskiy District, the Georgian policeman perished as a result of a skirmish in the adjacent Zugdidi District with Georgian criminal groupings.

We remind you that the situation in the conflict zone has sharply aggravated after the last-month assassination of two high-ranked militia bosses of the Galskiy District of Abkhazia.

On December 28, additional forces of the Abkhazian antiterrorist centre detained 48 Georgians, who were released later.

The Georgian party asserts that the death of the Abkhazian militiamen was a result of local shootout. The Abkhazian party states that the murder of militiamen is an operation of Georgian raiders.