Georgia - Russia - South Ossetia

Senior Russian officer reported killed in Tskhinvali blast

Saturday 04 October 2008

Colonel Ivan Petrik, chief of staff of the Russian mission in South Ossetia, was killed in a car bomb attack Friday near his base in Tskhinvali, according to Russian media, which cited investigators as saying Georgia was behind the attack.

MOSCOW - A senior Russian peacekeeping officer was among seven soldiers killed on Friday in an explosion in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Russian media reported on Saturday.

On Friday, seven Russian peacekeepers died and another seven were wounded when a car filled with explosives blew up near their base in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, news agencies reported.

RIA Novosti on Saturday quoted a representative of Russia's Ground Force as saying Colonel Ivan Petrik, the Russian peacekeepers' chief of staff, was killed in that blast. He was in his office when the explosion went off near the building.

"Petrik was severely wounded by the blast wave and died at the explosion site," RIA quoted the official as saying.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity on Friday blamed Georgian security services for the blast. The Georgian Interior Ministry denied the charges.

Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, which threw off Georgian rule in the early 1990s.

Russian forces subsequently drove Georgian government troops out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks.

The West has condemned Russia for a "disproportionate response" to Georgia's actions and demanded that Moscow pull back its troops from Georgian territory outside the conflict zones.

Under a plan mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, EU monitors have now entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia to begin a peacekeeping operation.

On Friday, Russia's Defence Ministry said it viewed the explosion as "a deliberately planned terrorist act aimed at preventing the sides from carrying out the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan," but did not specify who exactly was behind the blast.

EU ceasefire monitors were continuing operations despite security concerns after the blast.

A spokesman for the mission said unarmed monitors had been patrolling as normal on Saturday, including within the Russian-controlled buffer zone adjacent to South Ossetia.

Pour aller plus loin

SOUTH OSSETIA: Deadly blast near Russian base in Georgia (03/10/2008)
RUSSIA - UKRAINE: Putin accuses Kiev of arms deliveries to Georgia (03/10/2008)
WEB NEWS: Web reacts after European observers sent to Georgia (02/10/2008)
GEORGIA - RUSSIA: EU observers enter Georgia buffer zone (02/10/2008)