Nine people, including six UN observers, were killed Monday when rebels shot down a helicopter in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia, ITAR-TASS reported.
The Mi-8 helicopter, with six UN observers and three crew onboard, set off from Sukhumi airport at around 9:00 am Moscow time (0500 GMT) and was shot down 15 minutes later over a region known to be a stronghold of Georgian and Chechen rebels.
The helicopter was shot down over Abkhazia's Kodori gorge, "which is under the control of Chechen and Georgian terrorists, who have invaded Abkhaz territory from Georgia," Abkhaz "foreign minister" Sergei Shamba told Interfax.
Earlier, the republic's defence minister had warned of a possible attack by up to 1,000 Georgians and Chechen rebels, Interfax reported.
Around 500 fighters under Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelayev were preparing to mount a joint attack with a 500-strong force advancing on Abkhazia from Georgia's Pankissky gorge, Vladimir Mikanba said.
Abkhazian separatist troops used artillery and armored cars last week to repel an armed group of Chechens and Georgians who seized a local village.
Abkhazia has claimed de facto independence from Tbilisi since 1993 after fighting a war in the early 1990s in which the separatists were supported by Moscow.
Around 3,000 Russian troops are stationed in Abkhazia as part of a peacekeeping force sent by the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose grouping of former Soviet republics.
Georgia is home to several thousand Chechen rebels and refugees who have fled the fighting in the neighboring southern Russian republic -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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