![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
. | ![]() |
. |
![]()
Brussels (AFP) May 9, 2008 Experts from the EU Satellite Centre in Spain will travel to Georgia to help investigate recent incidents involving Georgian drones overflying the rebel region of Abkhazia, an EU spokeswoman said Friday. "An expert mission should leave this weekend, at the request of the UN department for peacekeeping operations," Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, told AFP. "The United Nations has called for expertise from the centre to interpret images of the incidents. We have agreed and have told the experts to go. The idea is to verify and to help clarify what happened,"she explained. "It's a way to contribute in a concrete way to calming the situation," she added. Georgia's rebel region of Abkhazia said Friday that an unmanned Georgian spy plane it shot down the day before was carrying an air-to-air missile. Abkhaz officials showed debris to journalists that they said was recovered from where the drone crashed, consisting largely of unidentifiable metal fragments. Georgia denied the spy drone had been shot down, saying none of its planes had been flying over Abkhazia. The Abkhaz leadership has claimed the downing of five unmanned Georgian spy planes in the last two months, while Georgia has acknowledged only one such shooting, carried out, it said, by a Russian fighter jet. Tensions have soared in recent days over Abkhazia. Russia recently increased its contingent of peacekeeping soldiers in the region, claiming that Georgia was preparing an invasion to retake control of Abkhazia. Gallach did not say where in Georgia the experts from the European Union Satellite Centre (EUSC) would visit. The EUSC, located in Torrejon de Ardoz near Madrid, is tasked with supporting the decision-making of the European Union by providing analysis of satellite imagery and collateral data. It is one of the key institutions for the European Union's Security and Defence policy, and the only one in the field of space. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links UAV News - Suppliers and Technology
![]() ![]() The war of nerves between Georgia, Russia and the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia stepped up a notch Sunday, as Abkhaz officials claimed to have downed two unmanned Georgian spy planes. |
![]() |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2007 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |