Missile dropped in Georgia's territory probably by Russian Su-24M - Estonian experts

22.08.2007

TALLINN, Aug 22, BNS - Vello Loemaa, the Estonian defense attache in Washington who went to Georgia as part of an international team of experts probing the missile incident, said that the missile under question possibly was dropped by a Su-24M front-line bomber of the Russian Federation.

Loemaa, ex-commander of the Estonian Air Force and former Soviet military pilot, said Georgia had no aircraft capable of launching the kind of missile that had been identified.

It is likely that the missile was dropped near Tsitelubani village in Georgia on Aug. 6 by a Su-24M front-line bomber of the Russian Federation designed to destroy ground-based targets, he said.

Loemaa told BNS that he himself flew the same aircraft for the last time in 1991.

The bomber jet that violated Georgia's air space three times that day fired the missile on its last flight that lasted 11 minutes, returning to the Russian territory after that.

Experts examining the remains of the missile in Georgia established that it was a Kh-58 radar homing missile manufactured in Russia in 1992.

The experts found that the missile had been fired from a short distance, which explains why it didn't explode.

Lt. Mart Magi, radar specialist at the Estonian Ministry of Defense, said that violations of Georgia's air space by the Russian bomber had been clearly recorded by Georgian civilian and military radars alike.

The second international group of experts consisting of experts from Britain, Poland and Estonia upheld the findings of the first group that was made up of experts from the United States, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden.

Russia has denied any link to the missile incident and maintains that no planes of its air forces flew in the area on that day.

Tallinn newsroom, +372 610 8863, sise@bns.ee