Georgia does not want war in its breakaway South Ossetia region, President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Thursday after Russia said overnight clashes in the province showed Tbilisi was preparing for conflict, according to Reuters. South Ossetia said 18 people had been wounded in what it described as heavy overnight artillery bombardment of the breakaway capital Tskhinvali and separatist-controlled villages. Tbilisi said it was merely returning fire in a region where Georgian and Ossetian villages share an impoverished valley, under the tense guard of Georgian and Russian forces.
