Cause of explosion at the Georgia -South Ossetia border clarified

The monitoring conducted by peace-makers has revealed that two remote control devices exploded within the South Ossetia border zone.

"During the monitoring, JPMF observers representing three parties and OSCE mission officers, together with field-engineer platoon of the Russian JPMF battalion officers, have determined that two remote control devices exploded there, one of which most probably was a MON-50 mine", reports Vladimir Ivanov, assistant commander of the Joint Peace-making Forces (JPMF) for mass-media relations, to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The explosion which killed Valeri Dzhioyev, resident of South Ossetia, occurred on July 25 at 17:20 300 meters away from the location of the Russian peace-making JPMF battalion. Valeri Dzhioyev was driving his "Niva" at the moment of the explosion. "The action was obviously planned and well-aimed", notes Ivanov.

According to the JPMF Joint Headquarters, 12 actions involving remote control explosive devices have been used within the Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone since the beginning of 2008, resulting in 5 deaths. More than 25 persons have been wounded, in 3 cases local residents trod on trap-mines, in several cases cattle exploded on anti-personnel mines.

For reference, the situation in the conflict zone drastically aggravated after the shelling of Tskninval on the night of July 4. Simultaneously, the villages of Ubiati and Dmenisi were shelled, too, forcing South Ossetia to declare general mobilization, which was subsequently suspended. According to preliminary results, the shelling of South Ossetia resulted in the death of three persons, 11 persons more were wounded. It is claimed in Georgia that the shelling was started by South Ossetia, while Georgia was forced to act in response.