Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region accused European Union monitors today of ignoring "armed provocations" by Georgia along its boundaries and said its retaliation would be emphatic.
The accusation was made one day after a Georgian district governor and a villager were killed by what Georgian police said were mortars fired from the Abkhaz side in the boundary zone.
Today, Abkhazia accused Georgia of firing at a border checkpoint, saying one of its border guards had been wounded.
The new shoot-out appears to have increased tension around Abkhazia's de facto border since Russian forces pulled back to within the rebel region early this month, following a five-day war with Georgia in August.
"The heightened activity of Georgian subversive groups in Abkhazia, these frequent shootings and killings, are a consequence of the absence of Russian peacekeepers in the conflict zone and the inaction of EU monitors," Russia's RIA news agency quoted an unnamed senior Abkhaz security official as saying.
Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh held an emergency meeting of the separatist security council.
"Georgia is launching a large-scale terrorist action on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia," Russia's Vesti-24 state channel showed a grim Bagapsh as telling the meeting.
"I repeat: shooting at any (Abkhaz) post from Georgian territory will be punished by retaliatory fire from all weapons we have at our disposal. If there is a need to bring in armour - let's say, more or less combat-ready tanks - do it."