MIA: Three Policemen Injured in Attack in Kodori

One policeman was badly injured and two others slightly wounded after they were attacked in upper Kodori Gorge early on July 9, the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) said.

The MIA said the attack was carried out by an unknown group as the Georgian policemen were patrolling the area between the villages of Deluki, Achamkhara and Kvabchara; the latter is the last Georgian-controlled village in the gorge with Abkhaz-controlled areas beyond the village.

The MIA also said that the policemen were on a routine patrol ahead of a planned visit by monitors from the UN observer mission in the gorge.

In a separate incident, the MIA reported that a Georgian police post came under grenade attack close to the Shamgona-Akhali Abastumani section of the Abkhaz administrative border in the early hours of July 9. No one was injured, the MIA said.

While no comment was made by the Abkhaz side about the first reported incident in Kodori Gorge, Sokhumi said the attack on the police post in Georgia’s Zugdidi district at the Abkhaz administrative border had been “staged” by the Georgian side itself.

“At 4:15 am on July 9, the Georgian secret services carried out yet another provocation, involving staging of an attack on the post of the Georgian special purpose unit at the village of Rukhi,” the Abkhaz security service said, according to the Apsnipress news agency.

“This is part of the Georgian side’s attempts to artificially escalate tensions in the region on the eve of the visit of the U.S. secretary of state [who will arrive in Tbilisi later on July 9],” the Abkhaz security service said. “It is obvious that Tbilisi is trying to change the existing [Russian-led] peacekeeping format with the help of its western partners.”