Attack on TV Raises Tension as Georgia Vote Nears
The headquarters of an independent Georgian television station which played a part in the downfall of veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze came under grenade attack on Monday, security officials said. The attack heightened tension ahead of a January 4 presidential election in which Mikhail Saakashvili, who led street protests that brought down Shevardnadze, is widely expected to triumph. A grenade fired from a shoulder-held launcher hit the studio of Rustavi-2 in the capital Tbilisi in the early morning, damaging the station’s editing suites, security officials said. No one was injured. “This was a real terrorist attack,” said State Minister Zurab Zhvania. He said the culprits were people opposed to stability in the volatile ex-Soviet state on the southern fringes of Russia. Full Story