The U.S. embassy in Tbilisi said in a statement that was “concerned by reports of a violent incident along the administrative boundary line with South Ossetia/Tskhinvali region” on May 18. 

“We urge all parties to exercise restraint in the wake of the incident, to share fully all details with the European Union Monitoring Mission and to participate as soon as possible in an ad hoc meeting of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism.  This incident highlights the ongoing need for EUMM access to both sides of the administrative boundary line,” the statement reads.

Two local Georgian villagers from the Sachkhere district were wounded in a shooting in the vicinity of the administrative border of breakaway South Ossetian on Wednesday morning. Four others were detained by the militias from the breakaway region.

Tbilisi said that the South Ossetian militias opened fire as they tried to detain villagers, but Tskhinvali said its border guards opened a response fire after being attacked by “unidentified persons”, who tried to foil their attempts to detain “illegal trespassers of the South Ossetian border.”