Georgian officials said a woman and child were killed when four military aircraft presumed to be Russian bombed the Pankisi Gorge early on 23 August. Seven other people were injured. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman denied that Russian aircraft flew any such bombing raid. Meanwhile residents of the villages in the gorge accused the independent Georgian television station Rustavi-2 of provoking the bombing by a report it aired the previous evening quoting local shepherds as saying Chechen field commander Ruslan Gelaev and his men, said to number between 100-500, are currently making their way through the gorge en route for Chechnya. Referring to that broadcast, Georgian National Security Council Secretary Tedo Djaparidze told Caucasus Press on 23 August that neither Gelaev nor his group of fighters are currently in Georgia. (RFE/RL)