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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The former Soviet republic of Georgia and one of its breakaway territories, Russia-backed South Ossetia, accused each other of violating the cease-fire that ended last year's Russian-Georgian war, days before the conflict's anniversary.
EU monitors watch a Russian helicopter flying near the border between Georgia and South Ossetia on July 29.
The European Union, which monitors the boundary in place since the 2008 conflict, said on Tuesday it had not seen any evidence to confirm either side's claims but expressed concern about the allegations.
"The EU urges all sides to refrain from any statement or action that may lead to increased tensions at this particularly sensitive time," the union said in a statement issued Tuesday.
And in Washington, U.S. State Department official Philip Gordon told a Senate committee that the situation over the weekend was "all too much like the events of last summer."
Days of sporadic clashes between both sides led to a Georgian assault on South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, on August 7, 2008. The following day, Russian troops poured into South Ossetia, which declared its independence from Georgia in the early 1990s after a bloody ethnic conflict between Georgians and Ossetians.
An EU-brokered cease-fire ended the conflict five days later, after Russian troops had driven Georgian government forces out of South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- another Russian-backed separatist territory -- and pushed into Georgian government-controlled territory. Russia said Tuesday that its remaining forces in South Ossetia were on high alert.
"It is an alarming situation. There are incessant provocations from the Georgian side ahead of the anniversary of the events of August last year," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in a written statement. But he added that both sides' claims have been "contradictory and full of mutual accusations."
South Ossetia's government said Tuesday that three Georgian mortar shells struck outside one of their villages late Sunday, but there were no injuries. It said its troops did not return fire after what it said was the third such incident since July 30.for more detail please visit cnn.com. source: cnn.com