Jul 13, 2007

Abkhazia: Premier Injured in Attack


The Premier of Abkhazia was injured as assailants fired a grenade launcher at the car carrying the Premier. This attack seems to constitute the fourth assassination attempt in two years time.

The Premier of Abkhazia was injured as assailants fired a grenade launcher at the car carrying the Premier. This attack seems to constitute the fourth assassination attempt in two years time.

Below is an article written by the Associated Press and published by the International Herald Tribune:

Assailants fired a grenade launcher at the car carrying the prime minister of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region Monday [9 July 2007], wounding him slightly in what officials said was an apparent assassination attempt.

The incident was the fourth apparent attempt on Alexander Ankvab's life since he took office two years ago.

A grenade hit the trunk of Ankvab's car as he was en route to Sukhumi, the capital of the Black Sea province, Interior Minister Otar Khetsiya said.

He said Ankvab had shrapnel wounds in his back and was shaken up by the blast, but that nobody was seriously injured in the attack.

The region's top prosecutor, Safarbei Mikanba, said investigators had found a getaway car and identified its owner.

Abkhazia, a small, lush province on the Black Sea coast, has run its own affairs since breaking away from Georgian government control in a war in the early 1990s. It has support from Russia, but its sovereignty claim is not internationally recognized.

Georgia has vowed to bring Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia, back under government control.