Conflicting Reports Prevail over Shellings near Tskhinvali

Georgian officials reported that the Georgian village of Tamarasheni, which is just a few kilometers North of the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, came under intense fire from Tskhinvali.

Simultaneously, the South Ossetian side reported that the northern outskirts of Tskhinvali came under attack from the village of Tamarasheni. The South Ossetian side reported that four civilians were killed and two others wounded in Tskhinvali.

Independent verification of these reports is unavailable.

The incident occurred just a few minutes after the Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili expressed a readiness to pull out Georgia?s extra troops from the conflict zone in exchange for the security of the Georgian villages in the conflict zone.