Georgia Accuses Russia of Air Attack

Georgia today accused its neighbor Russia of an "act of aggression" after two Russian jet fighters allegedly crossed in to its airspace and dropped a bomb on a village close to its capital Tbilisi.

Moscow immediately denied the attack saying its aircraft had "not violated the borders of sovereign Georgia".

The interior ministry in Tbilisi said the 700kg explosive device - possibly a surface-to-air missile - fell close to a house on the edge of Shavshvebi, a village about 35 miles north-west of the Georgian capital, but did not go off. "If it had exploded, it would have been a catastrophe," spokesman Shota Ustiashvili told news agencies.

The two former Soviet states have had tense relations that worsened last year after Georgia ejected four Russian soldiers whom it accused of spying.

Moscow is angry at Tbilisi's moves towards Nato and the European Union and Russia openly supports the two breakaway Georgian regions bordering its territory, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The bomb allegedly fell on yesterday evening in the Gori region, close to South Ossetia, which seceded from Georgia in the early 90s after a bitter civil war.

About 500 Russian peacekeepers - whose neutrality is disputed by the Georgians - are based in South Ossetia and there have been accusations that Moscow has moved military hardware into the region.

But South Ossetia's de facto president, Eduard Kokoity said the alleged strike was a "provocation" organized by the government in Tbilisi.

"A Georgian military plane crossed into South Ossetia on Monday, performed manoeuvres above Ossetian villages and dropped two bombs," he told Interfax news agency. "It was a provocation staged by the Georgian side, aimed at discrediting Russia." He said one of the bombs fell on the Gori district near an ethnic Ossetian village.

In Tbilisi, the Russian ambassador, Vyacheslav Kovalenko - only recently returned to the country after he was recalled by Moscow during the spy scandal - was called to the foreign ministry to "provide explanations".

Georgian officials have frequently accused Russian aircraft of infiltrating their airspace, to consistent denials from Moscow.

Russian Air Force spokesman Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said of yesterday's incident: "Russian aircraft haven't conducted any flights over that area and haven't violated Georgia's airspace."

In a separate incident earlier this year Georgia said Russian helicopters launched an attack on its territory in the Kodori Gorge, a disputed area of breakaway Abkhazia. A UN investigation was unable to determine who was responsible.