Mortars hit Georgia rebel region for 2nd day-I'fax

TBILISI, June 29 (Reuters) Mortars and rocket-propelled grenades hit Tskhinvali, the capital of the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia, Interfax news agency quoted the separatist authorities as saying today.

''The northern part of the city received fire from the Georgian village of Tamarasheni,'' South Ossetian spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva told Interfax.

''As a result one house has been destroyed and one person in the house heavily injured.'' In the biggest flare-up in violence for months, the separatists on Thursday accused Georgian forces of firing artillery at a village, accusations the Georgian side denied.

The separatists and Georgian forces exchange small arms fire frequently but shelling is unusual.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said this month the restoration of Tbilisi's control over the region would take place in ''a matter of months''.

Mamuka Kurashvili, commander of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion in the South Ossetia conflict zone, told Reuters by telephone there had been some firing. It was too early to say how serious before a joint Russia-Georgian monitoring group assessed the damage, he said.

''There was some firing last night from time to time but it was provoked by the South Ossetian side,'' he said.

South Ossetia, wedged between Russia and Georgia, is one of a handful of ''frozen conflicts'' that are a source of instability in ex-Soviet states and is a flashpoint between Georgia's pro-Western leadership and Moscow.

REUTERS SLD BST1143