Four killed in Abkhazia blast

MOSCOW, July 7 (UPI) -- Georgian security forces are being blamed for an explosion that killed four people and injured six others in the breakaway province of Abkhazia late Sunday.

The blast occurred in a cafe in the town of Gali that sits near the border of Georgia and Abkhazia, the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reports.

Abkhazia has been the site of ongoing tensions between Russia and Georgia since it declared its independence.

Georgia seeks to regain control of the province while Russia has been providing financial aid and thousands of peacekeepers.

"The incident in Gali is nothing but a terrorist attack aimed against security service officers working in the district." said the head of Abkhazia's security service. "The involvement of Georgia's security service in this crime is obvious."

Sunday's blast follows two recent explosions, one in the capital of Sukumi and the other at the Black Sea resort of Gagra.

Abkhaz authorities blamed Georgian security forces for both of those blasts and closed the defacto border with Georgia.