Six people were killed and four wounded when a car filled with explosives blew up near a Russian peacekeepers' base in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia on Friday, the separatists said, Reuters reported. The car had been parked next to the wall of the Russian base in the regional capital Tskhinvali, according to a statement on the South Ossetian website www.cominf.org. The vehicle had earlier been confiscated from the Georgian-populated village of Disevi for illegally transporting weapons, the statement said. Months of skirmishes between separatists and Georgian troops erupted into war in August when Georgia sent troops and tanks to retake the pro-Russian rebel region of South Ossetia, which threw off Tbilisi's rule in 1991-92. Russia responded with a powerful counter-strike that drove the Georgian army out of South Ossetia. Moscow's troops then pushed further into Georgia, saying they needed to prevent further Georgian attacks. A Russian Defence ministry spokesman confirmed the blast, but could not give any further details. "We are checking the information," he said. It was not immediately clear whether those killed and injured by the blast were civilians or Russian military. Russia has deployed peacekeepers at the base since the early 1990s.
