( CNN ) -- Six people were killed and 13 wounded in the shelling of South Ossetia by Georgian forces , South Ossetian officials said Saturday , according to Russia 's Interfax news agency . Officials of the breakaway Georgian region said the shelling was part of a Georgian military operation , Interfax reported . Georgia initially suggested Russian peacekeepers were to blame , drawing heated denials from the Russian Defense Ministry , which called the allegation `` dirty informational provocation . '' Later , however , Mamuka Kurashvili , the commander of Georgian peacekeeping operations , told reporters that four people were wounded when several Georgian villages were fired upon from South Ossetia , and Georgia `` had to return fire . '' Women , children and the elderly were being evacuated from the conflict zone because of fears that Georgia would continue military operations against the region , according to the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee as reported by Interfax . South Ossetia 's government held a special session on the violence , the Russian news agency said . `` If Georgia continues provocative actions , we will announce the recruitment of volunteers not only in the North Ossetia but in the entire North Caucasus and also carry out general mobilization in South Ossetia , '' South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity told Interfax . Georgia , located on the Black Sea coast between Russia and Turkey , has been split by Russian-backed separatist movements in South Ossetia and another region , Abkhzia . Accusations often fly on both sides , and the South Ossetian leadership has alleged that Georgian troops stage attacks to create a pretext for military action . South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia in the early 1990s after a bloody war there between ethnic Georgians and Ossetians . The region 's independence is not internationally recognized . Russian , Georgian and South Ossetian troops participate in a mixed peacekeeping force there and have maintained a fragile peace broken occasionally by fighting . On Friday , as reports of the shelling began , Russia expressed `` its most serious concern about the escalation of tensions in South Ossetia . '' Moscow said it was taking measures to prevent escalation of the conflict as it urged both Georgia and South Ossetia to look for diplomatic ways to calm the situation .
Georgian official said South Ossetia had fired on Georgian villages first . Women , children , elderly being evacuated from the conflict zone . The attack by Russian - backed separatist forces in South Ossetia .