国际英语新闻：Russian prosecutors accuse Georgia of plotting car blast in South Ossetia

MOSCOW, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Georgian special services were involved in Friday's car explosion in its breakaway region of South Ossetia, a spokesman for Russia's top investigation body said Saturday.

    "The team of investigators conducting a preliminary probe has every reason to suspect that the Tskhinvali explosion was triggered by Georgian special forces to destabilize the situation in the independent republic," Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.

    However, Georgia denied Saturday that it had any involvement in the deadly car bomb blast.

    "It is a provocation arranged by Russian special forces, which aims to slow down the withdrawal of the Russian armies of occupation from the territory adjoining the conflict zone," the Georgian Interior Ministry said in a statement.

A woman walks past ruins of houses that were destroyed during last month's fighting in Tskhinvali, the main city of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Sept. 7, 2008

    The Russian Defense Ministry on Friday described the blast as "a carefully planned terrorist act aimed at preventing the implementation of the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan," under which Russian troops are to pull back to positions inside Georgia's two separatist regions by Oct. 10.

    A car bomb went off near the peacekeeping force's headquarters in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali Friday afternoon, killing eight Russian peacekeepers and three civilians.

    Georgia launched a sudden attack against South Ossetia early Aug. 8 to reclaim control over the region. Russia sent in troops the next day and defeated the Georgian forces.

    The military conflict was stopped on Aug. 12 with a France-brokered ceasefire pact in which Moscow promised to pull out its troops. A follow-up agreement set a timetable for the withdrawal of Russian troops and for the deployment of foreign observer missions.

    Moscow recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia's two breakaway regions, as independent states on Aug. 26.