Fire at the Georgian village of Nikozi was opened Saturday evening from Tskhinvali, the capital of the separatist region, Georgia said.
South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia following a bloody conflict in 1991-1992 that killed hundreds of people. The pro-Western Georgian government of Mikheil Saakashvili has said it is determined to bring the breakaway region back under its control.
Mamuka Kurashvili, the commander of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict area, said that large-caliber weapons, mortars and automatic rifles were used to shell the village and that the shelling lasted 45 minutes.
He said a monitoring group consisting of peacekeepers and OSCE representatives in the conflict area is investigating the situation.
The Georgian side also said a resident of the village of Nikozi was wounded during the shelling and was taken in a grave condition to a hospital in Tbilisi for treatment.
At the same time, South Ossetian authorities said the breakaway republic's capital of Tskhinvali was subjected to fire yesterday evening from three Georgian villages located in the conflict area. As a result of the shelling, which began at 09:30 p.m. Moscow time (06:30 p.m. GMT), a local resident was injured, the republican information and press department said.
