Photos obtained by EurasiaNet and reportedly taken on August 12, the day Abkhaz forces took over the Upper Kodori Gorge, show smoldering piles of unidentifiable ordnance. Dzhonua stated that some alleged stockpiles were bombed in the initial attack; others, he claimed, were destroyed by retreating Georgians.

One Abkhaz reservist commander alleged to EurasiaNet that the weapon were in clear view of the United Nations monitoring mission’s headquarters in Adjara, the Upper Kodori Gorge’s government seat. "It’s interesting what kind of monitoring they were doing," the commander said. "The whole road [through the Upper Kodori Gorge] was marked with these depots."

In its last report before fight...

Photos obtained by EurasiaNet and reportedly taken on August 12, the day Abkhaz forces took over the Upper Kodori Gorge, show smoldering piles of unidentifiable ordnance. Dzhonua stated that some alleged stockpiles were bombed in the initial attack; others, he claimed, were destroyed by retreating Georgians.

One Abkhaz reservist commander alleged to EurasiaNet that the weapon were in clear view of the United Nations monitoring mission’s headquarters in Adjara, the Upper Kodori Gorge’s government seat. "It’s interesting what kind of monitoring they were doing," the commander said. "The whole road [through the Upper Kodori Gorge] was marked with these depots."

In its last report before fighting broke out between Georgia and Russia, the mission wrote on July 9 that it "did not observe signs of a large-scale induction of security forces," but noted that the Georgian Interior Ministry had "not allowed access to some areas ? which made it impossible to verify the official figures." No mention was made of weaponry.

When Abkhaz forces reached the upper part of the gorge, American-made weapons "were just lying around on the [main] road" leading through the gorge from the West, the commander claimed.

Some photos purportedly taken August 12 show grinning Abkhaz soldiers holding foreign-made automatic weapons. Georgian officials were not available to comment on the materiel left behind.