Georgia Accuses Russia of Aiding Rebels

The Georgian government said Abkhazian rebels launched a commando raid on its Black Sea coast early Friday and accused Russia of pouring 2,000 extra troops onto its territory.

Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze told Parliament that 600 commandos landed by sea and attacked government forces. At least 23 people were killed in an Abkhazian artillery blitz of the regional center, Sukhumi, Russian television said.

The Georgian Defense Ministry accused Russia of sending reinforcements into Georgia at the same time that the Abkhazians launched the offensive. “Overnight, three trainloads carrying 2,000 Russian servicemen of the 14th Army, in full military gear, crossed the Russian-Georgian frontier over the Psou River,” it said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its 14th Army was stationed in another former Soviet republic, Moldova, and hotly denied it had dispatched any extra troops.

Elsewhere in the former Soviet republics:

* Azerbaijani and Armenian forces engaged in fierce battle Friday around Fizuli, a city located along a key road to the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan.

* In Tajikistan, 40 Islamic militants have been killed in two days of fighting with Tajik and Russian forces along the Afghanistan border.