Peacekeeper killed in S. Ossetia

One peacekeeper died and two were missing after their car was fired upon in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, an official said yesterday, a return to violence after two months of peace in the territory.

"As a result of an attack on a car in which three Ossetian peacekeepers were travelling, one member of the Ossetian peacekeeping battalion has died," Boris Chochiyev, the co-chairman of a four-party peace commission, said.

He said the man died from his wounds in hospital after the incident, which happened close to the village of Mejvriskhevi in South Ossetia, a disputed mountainous territory which rejects rule from Georgia's central government in Tbilisi.