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TBILISI, Georgia (AFP)--Georgia said Monday that two of its police officers were killed when an unmanned Russian spy plane exploded after crashing on Georgian territory, but Moscow dismissed the claim as a "provocation."
The Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement that the drone violated Georgian airspace at about 1100 GMT Monday and fell in the village of Plavi, near the de facto border with the rebel region of South Ossetia.
"Two police officers of the ministry of interior...died as a result of the explosion of the unmanned aerial vehicle which occurred shortly after the police unit arrived at the place of the incident," it said.
The statement said eight people, including a 10-year-old boy, were also injured in the blast.
The Russian military immediately dismissed the claim, with a Defense Ministry official telling Russia's RIA Novosti news agency: "This is another media provocation by the Georgian authorities."
The official told the ITAR-TASS news agency that the "claims absolutely do not correspond to reality."
Russia and Georgia have repeatedly accused each other of violating ceasefire agreements by sending drones on reconnaissance missions over and around South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia.
But until Monday there had been no reported drone downings in more than six weeks.
The incident was the latest in a series of explosions and shootings in and around South Ossetia in recent days.
They have underscored how high tensions remain between Russia and its pro-Western neighbor Georgia, which fought a five-day war over South Ossetia in August.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 17, 2008 12:33 ET (17:33 GMT)

Publié le 17 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones