Commando Assaults Threaten Georgian-Abkhaz Peace Approximately twenty helicopter-borne assault troops landed yesterday in the remote Marukhi Pass on the border between the Republic of Georgia and the breakaway Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia. The allegedly Abkhaz commandos, who arrived in an unmarked helicopter, engaged in an intense firefight with Georgian border troops before withdrawing. The assault was followed by an artillery barrage on Georgian villages in the Kodori Gorge from the Abkhaz side of the border. Officials from Georgia and from the pro-Georgian Abkhaz government blamed the raid on separatist agitators attempting to wreck the peace process and to forestall the scheduled withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces. Other sources claim the attack was against heavily-armed Georgian commandos, who have allegedly set up bases in the rugged mountains from which they launch raids on Abkhaz villages.