SUKHUMI, August 18 (RIA Novosti) - Abkhazia will start deploying guards on Monday on its de facto border with Georgia, where an operation to oust Georgian troops was completed last week, the breakaway republic's deputy defense minister said.
"Border guards will be deployed from [Monday]. We will use those areas formerly occupied by the Georgians," Garri Kupalba said on Sunday.
Abkhazia launched an attack on August 12 to force Georgia's troops from the northern part of the Kodori Gorge, the only part of the rebel province that was still controlled by Georgia. The operation, which Abkhazia said did not involve Russian troops, was completed on August 13.
Georgia launched an offensive to retake its other separatist republic, South Ossetia, on August 8. The majority of residents of South Ossetia hold Russian citizenship, and Moscow launched a massive operation to expel Georgian troops from the region and to reinforce its peacekeepers.
