17:19, 4 February 2004

Georgia conducts special operation near Abkhazian border

Early in the morning today, the Georgian Interior Ministry launched a special operation in Georgia's Zugdidi district to disarm gangs acting in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone. As reported by a source at the ministry, special operations units which arrived from Tbilisi are taking part in the operation; helicopters are also being used. The operation is lead personally by Interior Minister Georgy Baramidze.

Some 30 members of different gangs have been detained in the Zugdidi district today, huge amounts of weaponry being seized from them, according to preliminary data. All passes to the district are under control of the police and special operations forces.

Overnight President Mikhail Saakashvili gave instructions to the heads of law-enforcement agencies to conduct in various districts of Georgia "anticriminal operations to disarm and detain armed gangs, which rob and kill citizens of the country and terrorize the population."

Source: ITAR-TASS News Agency