Georgian police officer shot dead near Abkhazia

A Georgian police officer was shot dead and two others were wounded yesterday near the de facto border with breakaway Abkhazia, the third such incident since the Georgia-Russia war in August.

The Georgian Interior Ministry blamed Abkhaz separatists who, it said, had opened fire from within Abkhazia.

The officer was the third to be killed in shootings near Georgia's two breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since Russian forces drove the Georgian army from South Ossetia in a five-day war in August.

A similar incident near the boundary with Abkhazia on September 13 prompted Georgia to replace border guards with elite police units.

The self-styled government of Abkhazia denied any involvement in the September 13 killing. There was no immediate reaction to yesterday's accusation.

Russian forces still hold positions along "security zones" adjacent to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. They are due to pull back by October 10, within 10 days of the announced deployment of 200 EU observers.

Earlier this month, a Georgian police officer was shot dead near a Russian checkpoint at the entrance to the South Ossetia buffer zone. Georgia blamed Russian forces but Moscow denied involvement.

Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia threw off Georgian rule in wars in the early 1990s. Russia recognised them as independent states after last month's war and said it would station around 7,600 soldiers in both regions.