Three wounded as Georgia, rebel region clash

TBILISI, June 30 (Reuters) Grenade attacks wounded three people today on the third day of cross-border violence between Georgia and the Russian-backed breakaway region of South Ossetia.

A separatist official said two were wounded on the South Ossetian side of the border by grenades fired from Georgia. A Georgian peacekeeper said one person was wounded by a grenade fired in the other direction.

''Rocket-propelled grenades were launched today for one to two hours from the Ossetian village of Kverneti,'' said Mamuka Kurashvili, commander of the Georgian peacekeeping battalion in the South Ossetia conflict zone.

One person was wounded in the Georgian village of Tamarasheni, he told Reuters by telephone from the region.

Murad Jioev, foreign minister in South Ossetia's government, said the Georgian army was firing from Tamarasheni toward Kverneti and the regional capital, Tskhinvali.

''Two people were wounded, as far as I know, in this shooting, which is still under way,'' Jioev told Reuters.

South Ossetia's status has been a source of tension between Tbilisi's pro-Western leadership and Moscow since the region broke away from Georgia in a 1991-2 war with the aim of ultimately joining Russia. Russia has peacekeeping troops there.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili declared on June 19 that the restoration of Tbilisi's control over the region would take place in ''a matter of several months''.

Yesterday, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Georgia of escalating the conflict after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity.

South Ossetia stretches along a long valley arching up from Georgia to the border with Russia at the top of the Caucasus mountains.

Last year South Ossetia, about 100 km from the Georgian capital Tbilisi and with a population of about 70,000, voted for independence in a referendum unrecognised in the West, but which Moscow said should be respected.

REUTERS SBC RAI1925