30 Are Killed as Militants Fire on Refugee Bus
Suspected Georgian militants fired on a bus taking refugees out of South Ossetia on Wednesday, killing more than 30 people and dealing a blow to talks to end violence in the breakaway region.
The Russian Itar-Tass news agency said the gunmen struck outside a village near Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, which for more than two years has been locked in a bloody fight to break away from Georgian control.
Tass said 31 people were killed in the attack, most of them women, children and elderly people trying to flee the region. Russian television put the death toll at 34.
The gunmen struck a week after Georgia’s new leader, former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, visited the region and helped to negotiate a cease-fire between Georgians and Ossetians.
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