Georgia Claims Russian Attack

Georgia has accused the Russian military of launching a missile at a small village in its territory. Reuters reports that the missile narrowly avoided a town west of Tbilisi and landed in a farm. The Georgian interior minister decried what he called an "act of aggression" but the Russian government has denied all responsibility.

Eyewitnesses said that the missile, which did not explode, formed a crater 16 feet deep in the middle of a vegetable patch in Tsitelubani, 40 miles west of the capital. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union Georgia has had increasingly tense relations with its larger neighbor, particularly over Georgia's bid to join NATO and over its pro-Russian separatist areas. (More Russia stories.)