Georgia says Russian planes "attacked"

CNN:

A pair of Russian fighter jets violated Georgian airspace Monday evening, firing a missile that landed near a village north of the capital, Tbilisi, Georgian authorities said Tuesday morning. There were no casualties.

"Two Russian, presumably, SU-24 frontline bombers violated Georgian airspace near Kazbegi and flew towards Gori," an Interior Ministry statement said. "The Russians launched 'air-surface' precision-guided missiles and bombed the surroundings of Tsitelubani village."

"Our radars show that these jets flew from Russia and then flew back in the same direction that they had come from ..." Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili told Reuters.

"I assess this fact as an act of aggression carried out by planes flown from the territory of another state," he added.

Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Georgian interior ministry's public relations department, earlier told Reuters that the Russian jets had dropped a 700 kilo (1,543 lb) bomb.

"Fortunately it didn't explode. If it had exploded it would have been a disaster," he added. He said nobody was hurt.

A senior official in Russia's air force quickly denied the reports.

Col. Alexandr Drobyshevskiy, the assistant commander of Russia's air force, said Russian planes did not fly any missions in the area and did not violate Georgia's airspace.

...

If the Georgians have the unexploded bomb that would be some proof that it was dropped. What they don't have is an explanation for why such an "attack" would take place. Most military operations have a purpose. Neither side has been able to state one for this operation. CNN needs to get in their and get a picture of the bomb and any markings on it to see if it can be tied to Russia's current arsenal.

This photo from an AP story on the "attack" says it is debris from an unexploded rocket. No markings are visible in the picture. This BBC photo does show some markings. The BBC story suggest that the Russians have been playing a cat and mouse game with Georgia for some time, but that the penetration into Georgian air space was much greater this time.

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