by Nikolai Topuria
TBILISI, July 30 (AFP) - Tensions flared again Friday at Georgia's tense border with its pro-Russian region of South Ossetia after a night-long gun battle that injured several and prompted terse accusations from Moscow against Tbilisi.
Both South Ossetian and Georgian officials denied starting the skirmish on the western corner of their border that is patrolled by both sides and Russian troops.
Georgian officials said the attack came from the South Ossetian side first and that they fired back to protect their civilians.
"The Georgian side was forced to return fire to protect innocent civilians," the interior ministry said in a statement.
Georgia said six South Ossetians and two Georgians were wounded in the exchange that lasted several hours across the contested border and only ended early Friday.
But South Ossetian officials said Georgia went on the attack and that mortar fire reached the separatist capital Tskhinvali.
The attack prompted South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity to charge Georgia with "a well-planned aggression" and to claim that Georgian troops were waging a three-sided assault on Tskhinvali
The incident also forced Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili -- who has vowed to reunify his fractured republic since toppling Eduard Shevardnadze in a peaceful revolution last year -- to cut short a trip to Israel and return to Tbilisi.
He succeeded earlier this year in winning control over the financially crucial pro-Russian pocket on the Black Sea called Adjara and seeing its leader flee into self-imposed exile in Moscow.
But South Ossetia won a separatist war with Moscow's help against Georgia and its predominantly Russian-speaking population trades primarily with Russia, uses Russian currency, and is actually trying to reunify with the republic of North Ossetia -- which is in Russia.
Saakashvili has focused on South Ossetia after Adjara's fall. But his exact plan of action is unclear and military tensions at the border have heightened as all sides involved pull in new troops and armaments.
Moscow, which is also upset that Georgia is seeking closer relations with the United States and accuses it of harboring Chechen rebels in its lawless province of Abkhazia, accused Tbilisi on Friday of inciting violence.
"We still hear loud calls from Tbilisi from those who support a military solution to the Georgian-South Ossetian problem," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"This is a dangerous game," it added, accusing Georgia of "playing with fire."
The comments came after Kokoity's talks in Moscow with a top Russian foreign ministry official.
A combined peacekeeping force of Georgians, Ossetians and Russians patrols the border between Georgia and South Ossetia. But all sides involved claim that the other party is sending additional supplies and reinforcements in breach of the agreement.
Moscow's conflict with Tbilisi has greater geopolitical repercussions and is being watched by Washington officials with growing concern.
Georgia is constructing a lucrative gas pipeline from the energy-rich Caspian Sea that skirts Russia's border and which is heavily backed by the United States.