Georgia blast kills Russian top commander

The commander of Russian troops in South Ossetia, Ivan Petrik, was killed by fragments after a car bomb set off in front of his office window. The South Ossetian police said the suspicious VAZ-2109 vehicle with Georgian plates was detained in the Georgian village of Ditsi, 6 km off Tskhinvali. A Russian patrol brought the vehicle to the headquarters.

The bomb set off at 16:30, ten minutes after it was parked under the headquarters' windows. The blast killed two Ossetinians, seven Russians and seven more were wounded. The Georgian authorities suggested that the terror act was organized by Russian secret services in order to justify the presence of the Russian troops in Georgia.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that the terror act was planned properly and aimed to disrupt the peace accord agreements brokered by Frensh President Nicolas Sarkozy, which envisage the replacement of the Russian troops with EU observers in the buffer zones, reports grani.ru.
Grani