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UN Helicopter Shot Down Over Abkhazia Region of Georgia, 3 Killed
Three people were killed on Monday when rebels shot down a helicopter carrying UN military observers in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia, Interfax quoted an Abkhazian government source as saying.
The Mi-8 helicopter, with six UN observers and three crew on board, set off from Sukhumi airport at around 9:00 am Moscow time (0500 GMT) and was shot down 15 minutes later over a region known to be a stronghold of Georgian and Chechen rebels, the same source said.
The helicopter was shot down over territory "controlled by Chechen and Georgian terrorists who invaded Abkhazian territory from Georgia," said Sergei Shamba, the Abkhazian Defense Minister, according to the Interfax news agency.
A UN representative in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, Dieter Boden, said that he could not confirm the shoot-down but that a group of observers had been scheduled to resume monitoring of the gorge on Monday. The observing mission was interrupted several months ago following the kidnapping of UN observers in the area.
Abkhazian separatists drove out Georgian forces in a 1992-1993 war that ended in a cease-fire and de facto independence. Attempts to reach a political solution have failed, and the Black Sea province has remained plagued by clashes and bombings ever since.
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