Two Georgian servicemen were killed and other casualties were reported Monday, officials said, in clashes that left a fragile three-day-old ceasefire in the breakaway region of South Ossetia in tatters.
A spokesman for the Georgian interior ministry said the troops died after coming under mortar and automatic weapons fire from irregular forces from the pro-Russian South Ossetian territory.
The spokesman, Guram Donadze, also claimed that 15 Ossetian fighters were killed in return fire from Georgian forces, but a South Ossetian spokeswoman quoted by Russian news agencies said three civilians were wounded in the fighting.
The violence came three days after a cease-fire signed by the conflicting parties as well as Russia and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) went into effect in a renewed drive to defuse the crisis in the region.