<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>Oct 4, 2008
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Georgian blast kills top officer <!--10 min-->
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MOSCOW - A TOP officer was among seven Russian soldiers killed in a car bombing in the Georgian rebel city of Tskhinvali, Russian media reported on Saturday, amid conflicting reports on the incident.
The death of Colonel Ivan Petrik, head of the Russian military's joint staff for the South Ossetia conflict zone, was first reported by Kommersant newspaper and confirmed to Interfax by a spokesman for Russian land forces, Mr Ivan Konashenkov.
'It's really the case. We're not hiding his death,' Mr Konashenkov said.
Earlier, Russia's military said seven servicemen had been killed and seven others wounded in Friday's car bomb blast at the Russian forces' base in Tskhinvali, but did not identify the victims.
South Ossetia, a rebel region of Georgia backed by Russia, was at the centre of an August war between Georgia and Russia.
Kommersant said the car had been brought to the Russian military base in Tskhinvali under the direction of Russian military personnel after local militia found it abandoned in a buffer zone around South Ossetia.
The report contradicted earlier claims that the car had been seized from Georgian citizens.
The newspaper quoted separatist interior minister Mikhail Mindzayev as saying the car delivered to the army base had been placed under Petrik's office window before it exploded.
South Ossetia's government spokesman was not available for comment when AFP tried to reach her.
Kommersant predicted that the blast might be used to justify keeping Russian troops in the buffer zone around South Ossetia beyond an October 10 deadline to withdraw to pre-conflict positions, under a European-brokered peace deal. 'If there's the wish, the terrorist act in Tskhinvali may be evaluated as an emergency situation in which, due to security considerations, Moscow could suspend fulfilment' of the peace deal, the newspaper said. -- AFP
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>Georgian blast kills top officer <!--10 min-->
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"-->
MOSCOW - A TOP officer was among seven Russian soldiers killed in a car bombing in the Georgian rebel city of Tskhinvali, Russian media reported on Saturday, amid conflicting reports on the incident.
The death of Colonel Ivan Petrik, head of the Russian military's joint staff for the South Ossetia conflict zone, was first reported by Kommersant newspaper and confirmed to Interfax by a spokesman for Russian land forces, Mr Ivan Konashenkov.
'It's really the case. We're not hiding his death,' Mr Konashenkov said.
Earlier, Russia's military said seven servicemen had been killed and seven others wounded in Friday's car bomb blast at the Russian forces' base in Tskhinvali, but did not identify the victims.
South Ossetia, a rebel region of Georgia backed by Russia, was at the centre of an August war between Georgia and Russia.
Kommersant said the car had been brought to the Russian military base in Tskhinvali under the direction of Russian military personnel after local militia found it abandoned in a buffer zone around South Ossetia.
The report contradicted earlier claims that the car had been seized from Georgian citizens.
The newspaper quoted separatist interior minister Mikhail Mindzayev as saying the car delivered to the army base had been placed under Petrik's office window before it exploded.
South Ossetia's government spokesman was not available for comment when AFP tried to reach her.
Kommersant predicted that the blast might be used to justify keeping Russian troops in the buffer zone around South Ossetia beyond an October 10 deadline to withdraw to pre-conflict positions, under a European-brokered peace deal. 'If there's the wish, the terrorist act in Tskhinvali may be evaluated as an emergency situation in which, due to security considerations, Moscow could suspend fulfilment' of the peace deal, the newspaper said. -- AFP
