Zugdidi - Abkhaz helicopters attacked Georgian and Chechen rebels in the disputed Kodori gorge yesterday after Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze appealed to Russia to help prevent the latest wave of separatist violence erupting into full-scale war.
Mr Shevardnadze offered to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the crisis in Abkhazia only days after the Georgian leader threatened to evict a contingent of Russian peacekeepers from the conflict zone.
A Georgian repel guerrilla leader claimed yesterday his men had arrived in the Abkhaz capital Sukhumi and were confronting Aabkhaz forces in a suburb. Abkhaz authorities could not confirm this information, and denied a report that the guerrillas has completely taken Sukhumi.