Russians killed in Georgia blast

[[R_H]]

BBC

A blast in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia killed seven Russian soldiers, a Russian commander says.

The soldiers died when a car full of explosives blew up near a Russian military base in the regional capital, Tskhinvali, local officials said.

Georgia said Russia organised the explosion as a pretext to delay withdrawing troops from South Ossetia.

But Russia blamed Georgia, saying it was an attempt to undermine a ceasefire agreement between the two sides.

Tension remains high in the region following the conflict between Russia and Georgia over the summer.

Seven other soldiers were injured in the blast, the Russian military commander in South Ossetia said.

According to a statement from the South Ossetian breakaway government, Russian troops had confiscated the vehicle that blew up from an ethnic Georgian village because it was carrying weapons.

Russian television footage showed a black plume of smoke rising from behind metal gates at the base.

An unidentified Russian foreign ministry official said forces "striving to destabilise the situation" were behind the blast, Russian media reported.

South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity went further, describing it as "a deliberate terrorist act prepared by the Georgian Security Ministry", Russia's Itar-Tass news agency said.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili rejected the allegation.

"I think this is a provocation with the aim of keeping Russian forces in Georgia," he told the AFP new agency.

EU monitors

The BBC's James Rodgers, in Moscow, says it is the most serious incident in South Ossetia since Russia and Georgia fought over the territory two months ago.Fighting began there on 7 August when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia by force after a series of lower-level clashes.

Russia launched a counter-attack and the Georgian troops were ejected from South Ossetia and another region, Abkhazia, several days later.

Earlier this week, European Union monitors entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around South Ossetia, as part of a French-brokered peace deal between the two sides.

Russia says it will pull out from the buffer zone and another around Abkhazia by 10 October.

But it has recognised the two breakaway regions as independent and says it will keep nearly 8,000 troops in the two areas.

The EU wants its observers to have access to the breakaway regions, but Russia has repeatedly refused to guarantee that.

[Rogue 9]

Why the fuck would Georgia want to undermine the ceasefire? They're incapable of effectively fighting if it falls apart.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Why the fuck would Georgia want to undermine the ceasefire? They're incapable of effectively fighting if it falls apart.

Georgia has no reason to do it, but some of their citizens are probably angry and shortsighted enough to think it a good idea to randomly car-bomb Russian troops, especially if they just got their car confiscated for running guns.

[Kanastrous]

Reminds me of those Moscow apartment bombings that the government pinned on Chechen separatists - the same separatists who had finally gotten Russia to leave them alone, and therefore had zero reason to want to attract Russia's wrath by attacking them...

...I'm voting for the FSB striking again.

[[R_H]]

Reminds me of those Moscow apartment bombings that the government pinned on Chechen separatists - the same separatists who had finally gotten Russia to leave them alone, and therefore had zero reason to want to attract Russia's wrath by attacking them...

...I'm voting for the FSB striking again.

Or it could be seperatists/insurgents from the other hotzones in the Caucasus, like Dagestan or Ingushetia.

[cosmicalstorm]

The War Nerd over at Exiledonline had a pretty funny writeup about this subject a couple of weeks ago called "Please dont turn Georgia into a nation of missing-relative-seeking refugees."

His argument was basically that Georgia was way to small to engage Russia in a guerilla war and that if they did, they would suffer the same fate as Chechnya already has. (i.e. everyone dies)

[Feil]

Why the fuck would Georgia want to undermine the ceasefire? They're incapable of effectively fighting if it falls apart.

Georgia has no reason to do it, but some of their citizens are probably angry and shortsighted enough to think it a good idea to randomly car-bomb Russian troops, especially if they just got their car confiscated for running guns.

NO! You don't see the TRUTH! Only a government organization (Russia) would have the means and the motive to make such a powerful weapon as a truck bomb. Why would the intelligent citizens of Georgia possibly want to kill Russian soldiers? And terrorists have NO INCENTIVE to try to provoke an asymmetrical response from the enemy power! DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES!

[CJvR]

According to a statement from the South Ossetian breakaway government, Russian troops had confiscated the vehicle that blew up from an ethnic Georgian village because it was carrying weapons.

LOL! Not even the Trojans were that stupid!

[Ma Deuce]

Reminds me of those Moscow apartment bombings that the government pinned on Chechen separatists - the same separatists who had finally gotten Russia to leave them alone, and therefore had zero reason to want to attract Russia's wrath by attacking them...

...I'm voting for the FSB striking again.

If the Chechen separatists wanted to be left alone, why did they invade Dagestan almost a month before the apartment bombings, and by extension, why would the Russian government need to to manufacture an excuse to go after the Chechens when they had just dropped one right in Moscow's lap? Hell, as I recall the Russian counterattack into Chechnya also began before the apartment bombings. This conspiracy theory is even stupider than the 9/11 ones when one simply considers the timeline of the events.

[K. A. Pital]

This conspiracy theory is even stupider than the 9/11 ones when one simply considers the timeline of the events.

Indeed.

Of course, given the way invasion of Dagestan by Basaev was "highlighted" in the Western media (hint: ZERO attention, kinda like the Georgian invasion of Tshinvali, simply omit even the very existence of such a place) ... it's rather acceptable for the Western public.

Of course, considering that during the Beslan incident the western press went for miles not to use the words "terrorist" or "radical islamist"...