MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) - Over the weekend the South Ossetian side fired on the Georgian villages of Eredvi and Tamarasheni, while yesterday it was the Georgians who made their mark. Irina Gagloyeva, chair of the information committee of the self-proclaimed republic, told Vremya Novostei that mortar fire was opened at dawn against South Ossetian villages. "Tskhinvali views this as a continuation of Georgian aggression in the form of psychological pressure," she said.
The information was confirmed by Colonel Andrei Pryakhin, an aide to the commander of the mixed peace-keeping force in the zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict. He added that a few hours before the shooting started Georgia's Defense Minister Georgy Baramidze had been in the conflict zone. In the self-same village of Tamarasheni he had his first meeting with Major-General Marat Kulakhmetov, the new commander of the force.
According to Anatoly Barankevich, South Ossetia's Defense Minister, someone had decided to use yesterday's fire to provoke the South Ossetian side to return in kind and to demonstrate to Baramidze that "we make violations and an additional Georgian contingent needs to be introduced".
