(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."
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Georgian official said South Ossetia had fired on Georgian villages first
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Women, children, elderly being evacuated from the conflict zone
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Georgia split by Russian-backed separatist movements in South Ossetia
Moscow said it was taking measures to prevent escalation of the conflict as it urged both @placeholder and South Ossetia to look for diplomatic ways to calm the situation.