Abkhazia denies shooting at Georgian police post

Two policemen have been injured after a Georgian police post in the village of Ganmukhuri, near the border with breakaway Abkhazian district of Gali, was fired on, the Georgian Interior Ministry said on August 28.

The Ministry stated that the firing came from Otobaia village, which is in the area controlled by the Abkhazian separatist authorities and Russian troops. One police vehicle was damaged during the incident. “Shooting from machine guns and grenade launchers lasted for ten minutes,” the Ministry said in a special statement.

The incident was also commented on by the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which laid responsibility for the shooting on the Russian side. “This incident, like the dozens of preceding provocations which have claimed the lives of 23 Georgian policemen and peaceful civilians, is yet another link in the chain of well-planned and targeted attempts aimed at destabilising the situation and embroiling the Georgian side in a more large-scale provocation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia expresses its strong protest over yet another provocative action conducted from inside the occupied territory and reiterates that responsibility for all these actions rests exclusively with the Russian Federation,” stated the Ministry on August 29.

The Abkhazian side has denied involvement in the incident. Laurens Kogonia, the de facto chief of the Abkhaz police in the Gali district, said the shooting had originated from the Georgian side of the border while Georgian police agencies were carrying out “operational activities against criminal suspects in the Zugdidi district.”