Shooting in Georgian separatist region,one policeman wounded

Shots fired on two ethnic Georgia villages in the separatist region of South Ossetia wounded one policeman.

Photo: Shooting in Georgian separatist region,one policeman wounded

The nighttime shooting was confirmed by the premier of the unrecognized South Ossetian separatist government, Boris Chochiyev, but he said two people were injured without giving further details.

Each side accused the other of starting the shooting late Saturday night in the villages of Ergneti and Nikozi.

South Ossetia as a whole has been under the control of a separatist government since fighting with Georgian forces ended in the mid-1990s, but remains a patchwork of ethnic Georgian and ethnic Ossetian communities. Violence and gunfire frequently break out.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has vowed to bring South Ossetia and another separatist region, Abkhazia, back under Tbilisi's control. But both regions insist they want either independence or incorporation into neighboring Russia.