http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=66218&sectionid=351020602

'Russia sinks Georgian attack boat'
Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:55:08 GMT
 
 
Russian military forces have sunk a Georgian warship that fired on its Black Sea Fleet, a defense ministry official has said.

"Russian navy ships returned fire, sinking a Georgian craft that had attacked," said the Russian official on condition of anonymity.

Elsewhere, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a defense ministry spokesman as saying that Georgian missile patrol boats twice tried to attack Russian ships, which in turn fired back and sank one of the Georgian vessels.

The naval vessel involved in Sunday's incident was carrying missile launchers, it said.

The latest incident is regarded as a serious escalation in the fighting that has been going on between the two sides over the separatist Georgian province of South Ossetia in the last few days.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, accused Georgia of not sticking to its unilateral offer of a ceasefire the Interfax news agency reported.

The conflict began after Georgian military forces launched a large-scale military offensive against South Ossetia on Thursday evening, just hours before the 2008 Olympic Games kicked off in China. Russia, in response, moved its forces to the region.

South Ossetia is officially a part of Georgia but a large number of its population of 70,000 have Russian passports and have strong links with North Ossetia which is a Russian territory. They have been trying to gain full independence from Georgia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

SM/DT