Russia not behind Georgia missile strike: general

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

MOSCOW (AFP) — A top Russian air force officer denied on Thursday that any Russian jet had been involved in a missile strike on Georgian soil.

Lieutenant General Igor Khvorov told journalists: "We didn't plan or carry out any flights over Georgian territory.... It's fairly difficult to talk about the flight because there was none. The rest is political conjecture."

His comments came after Russia's southern neighbour Georgia called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss Monday's incident.

Russia hotly denies Georgian accusations that one of its war planes fired a missile into a field near a Georgian village on the edge of South Ossetia, a separatist region mostly controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

© 2007 AFP