GEORGIA: TBILISI: GUNMEN OPEN FIRE ON PRESIDENT SHEVARDNADZE'S CAR

Natural Sound

Troops have moved into the streets of the Georgian capital Tbilisi after an assassination attempt on President Eduard Shevardnadze on Monday night.

Officials say gunmen opened fire on Shevardnadze's car, killing one of his bodyguards and wounding several others.

But they say Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, escaped unharmed from the attack.

Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze escaped unharmed Monday night when gunmen opened fire on his car, badly damaging the vehicle during a gun battle
that left one bodyguard and an attacker dead.

Police said the 70-year-old was returning to his official residence in the southern part of the capital when gunmen opened fire on the four-car motorcade.

The front of Shevardnadze's car was badly damaged when it was hit, head-on, by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Two other cars in the motorcade were badly burned.

A bodyguard, who was in the same car as the President, was killed.

Two other bodyguards were injured in the 10-minute gun battle that followed, officials said.

The attack took place about a kilometer (point-6 of a mile) from Shevardnadze's residence.

Police believed the gunmen had been hiding behind trees on a small hill overlooking the road where the President's car was travelling.

Shevardnadze was escorted to his residence in a police car.

Georgian authorities said they did not know who was responsible for the attack or what might have motivated it.

Police and troops flooded the area, searching vehicles and buildings after the attack.

Two tanks stood guard at the scene, which was illuminated with floodlights.

Shevardnadze later appeared on state television, talking to President Geidar Aliyev of Azerbaijan, who called to express concern about the attack.

He said the dead attacker had not been identified.

This was the second attempt in four years to kill Shevardnadze, who once served as Soviet foreign minister before Georgia gained independence from the Soviet Union.

Shevardnadze was cut by flying glass when a bomb exploded in his motorcade on the 29th of August, 1995, as he was leaving for a ceremonial signing of the country's
constitution.

Georgian prosecutors have since charged 14 people in connection with the attack.

The suspects included Shevardnadze's former supporter Dzhaba Ioseliani.

The former Soviet republic has been wracked by crime, coups and civil war and
Shevardnadze has made many enemies while trying to dilute the power of
assorted warlords and secessionists.

He is best known as the Soviet foreign minister who helped orchestrate perestroika under former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Shevardnadze has led his native Georgia since 1992.
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