More accurate wounded figures for Tskhinvali bombardment

The number of those who suffered during the shelling of the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, amounted to 10, including two children. These people sustained various wounds, according to law enforcement agencies of North Ossetia and South Ossetia. A two-year-old girl, Veronika Bekiyev, who was seriously wounded in her chest during the shelling of Tskhinvali is about to undergo a complex operation in the republican children's hospital in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, Interfax was told.

Tskhinvali underwent a bombardment on 20 September when South Ossetia was celebrating its Independence Day. Republican law enforcement agencies found a mine stabiliser at the scene, which let them conclude that heavy 122-mm mortars had been used to bombard the city.

South Ossetia's Defence Ministry says the fire was from the direction of Nikozi where the Georgian peace-keeping battalion headquarters is stationed, the Defence Ministry press service told Caucasian Knot earlier today.

Three mines detonated in a residential district not far from the city centre. One of them exploded in the yard of a multi-storey dwelling house. This is where most victims live. They were in the yard or on their balconies the moment the mine exploded. Most victims sustained shrapnel wounds in their heads or internal organs. The condition of two-year-old Alan Kaziyev who was wounded in the area near his heart cause concerns, Sarmat Parastayev, responsible surgeon of the Republican Clinical Hospital, told Caucasian Knot.

Zaira Janayev, the mistress of a private house in Geroyev St. told journalists that she took her children out when she had heard the first explosion. This had saved their lives. The journalists were able to make certain that fragments getting inside the house had broken the windows and riddled the walls.

The Georgian party denies shelling though, according to Ossetian members of the Mixed Control Commission (MCC) on Georgian-Ossetian Settlement.

Meanwhile, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity has expressed doubt that his meeting with Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli could occur before Tbilisi's official apologies for the Tskhinvali bombardment.

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