A car exploded outside Russia's military headquarters in South Ossetia on Friday, killing seven soldiers in what leaders of the Moscow-backed separatist region immediately described as a terrorist attack launched from Georgia. The blast came amid continuing tensions in the area as a ceasefire deadline approached for Russian troops to withdraw from territory around the breakaway republic, which has declared its independence from Georgia.
Preliminary reports indicated Russian forces had seized the car in a Georgian village outside South Ossetia and taken it to Tskhinvali, the capital, where it exploded, a South Ossetian spokeswoman said on Russian state television, which showed ambulances rushing from the scene as thick black smoke filled the air.
Seven Russian servicemen were killed in the blast, and seven others were wounded, the commander of the Russian forces, Maj. Gen. Marat Kulakhmetov, told the Interfax news agency. The wounded were airlifted to military hospitals in Russia, he said.
The death of Russian soldiers could jeopardize the fragile ceasefire brokered by European leaders last month. Russia invaded Georgia and routed its forces in a five-day war in August after a Georgian attack on South Ossetia killed several Russian peacekeepers stationed there.
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the explosion as a "crime" intended by "certain forces" to destabilize the region and undermine the ceasefire, the official RIA-Novosti news agency said.
The South Ossetian leader, Eduard Kokoity, was more direct. "The latest terrorist attacks in South Ossetia prove that Georgia has not renounced its policy of state terrorism," he said on Russian television. "We have no doubt that these terrorist acts are the work of Georgia special forces."