RUSSIA:An incident in which a missile was dropped on a Georgian village, prompting a diplomatic row with Moscow, may have been the result of a friendly-fire attack on the aircraft that carried it by pro-Moscow separatists, it emerged yesterday.
The Russian-made tactical guided missile did not explode.
Sources close to the investigation said the missile that fell 64km (40 miles) northwest of the capital, Tbilisi, was possibly jettisoned by a Russian aircraft after it and another aircraft came under ground fire over South Ossetia, the separatist region of Georgia that is supported by Moscow.
Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has accused the Kremlin of an attempt to "cause panic in society", saying two attack aircraft crossed 72km (45 miles) into Georgian airspace from a base in the Russian North Caucasus and dropped the missile, which landed in a field. No one was hurt.
Georgian foreign minister Gela Bezhuashvili told a briefing that radar had tracked the two aircraft entering Georgia across its northern border with Russia and departing the same way, in an act of "undisguised aggression".
The incident provoked a diplomatic war of words yesterday in the latest sign of strained ties between the two former Soviet republics. Georgia's interior ministry said there could have been a "catastrophe" if the 140kg warhead had exploded.
Georgia's defence ministry said yesterday that the tactical guided anti-radar missile was a Russian-made Raduga (Rainbow) Kh-58, carried by a Su-24 fighter.
"The Georgian armed forces do not possess Su-24 aircraft, nor do they possess this model of guided missile," the ministry stressed, responding to accusations that the attack was a "provocation" organised by the Georgian side to discredit Russia.
Moscow denied all involvement. In a sideswipe at Mr Saakashvili, the foreign ministry said it awaited results of the investigation and was "not inclined to resort to public rhetoric". The incident was an "attempt to derail positive trends in Russian-Georgian relations and exacerbate the situation with the settlement of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict".
Georgian media reported that the two Russian Su-24s were flying over South Ossetia on Monday evening when they were attacked from the ground. In attempt to outmanoeuvre a Strela missile, one of the aircraft dumped its 640kg missile, they said. If so, this would appear to be a mix-up between sympathetic forces. - (Guardian service)