Separatists in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region said on Sunday they had shot down two Georgian spy drones over the territory they control, but Georgia denied there had been any flights in the area, Reuters reported. Russia, which backs the separatists in Abkhazia, said the drone flights were illegal and showed Georgia was intent on fanning tension in the regions. Abkhazia, a sliver of land on the Black Sea coast, is the focus of a bitter row between Russia and Georgia's pro-Western leadership. Western diplomats warn tensions could spill over into large-scale conflict. "Two Georgian spy drones were shot down by Abkhaz air defence forces at around 1600 local time (1200 GMT) today," separatist foreign minister Sergei Shamba told Reuters. "The drone flights are a demonstration of Georgia's aggressive intentions towards Abkhazia," he said by telephone. A senior Georgian Interior Ministry official said there had been no flights by Georgian drones in the area on Sunday. "There were no flights by Georgian UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) today over Abkhazia and this information is not true," said Shota Utiashvili, head of the Interior Ministry's analytical department, when asked about the Abkhaz report. Russia's ties with Georgia have been strained for more than a decade by Moscow's support for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that threw off Georgian rule in wars in the 1990s.
