Georgia, Tbilisi, Aug. 30 / Trend N.Kirtskhalia /
The main part of a special operation in the Lopota gorge to neutralise an armed gang is complete, Deputy Interior Minister Shota Khizanishvili said on Thursday at a press briefing in the crisis headquarters which opened in the building of the Telavi police station in Kakheti, eastern Georgia.
He said 11 of the 12 bodies of the dead militants who entered Georgia from the adjacent territory of Russia, have already been found. "They have been buried by their religious laws," he said, without specifying where.
Khizanishvili said that several wounded fighters are still in the forest, but the security of the local population is ensured. Some militants he said are citizens of the Russian Federation mainly from North Ossetia.
The Georgian Interior Ministry has been carrying out the operation to free the hostages and detain an armed group of saboteurs seen near the border with Dagestan.
According to the information, a group of saboteurs who captured three groups of hostages consisting of civilians came through the border from Russia to Georgia. The group of hostages includes two or possibly three people. At the moment, all the hostages have been released, 11 militants killed, six are surrounded and an operation for their capture is on-going.