Azernews.Az

A train filled with crude owned by Azerbaijan's major oil company, AzPetrol, caught fire near the key city of Gori in central Georgia after an explosion that Georgian officials blamed on Russia.
The explosion that ignited the fire occurred at a military base in Skra, where, according to officials in Gori, mines were planted by Russian troops before their pullout from the area on Friday.
The blast occurred two days after Russia's withdrawal, scattering sparks onto nearby railway carriages loaded with oil and sending plumes of black smoke into the air.
The Russian Defense Ministry declined to comment, saying it was not clear what happened.
The train was stopped after Russian servicemen had reportedly blown up a bridge in the Grakali village, severing the rail link between western and eastern Georgia. Georgian officials say Russian forces sabotaged infrastructure to weaken Georgia before their pullback, the Associated Press reported.
Firefighters managed to contain the blaze on the same day. However, thirteen carriages burnt down along the railway tracks. Firefighting efforts allowed to prevent 116 out of 700 tons of crude from burning down, reports say.
Russian troops finally began to withdraw from Georgia on Friday, military officials said, following the pro-Western former Soviet republic's armed conflict with its giant northern neighbor.
The director of Georgia's railways, Irakli Ezugbaia, agreed that the blast was most likely caused by a mine. He said an investigation was under way and other mines have since been found on the tracks.
Ezugbaia said the destroyed train, carrying crude oil from Kazakhstan, was being transported by an Azerbaijani company at the time of the explosion and was headed to a Georgian Black Sea port.
The Georgian Interior Ministry confirmed the train had hit a mine. It reported no casualties resulted from the explosion or fire.
The Azerbaijani government has said the responsibility for the explosion rests with Tbilisi.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim told the press Monday that every country was responsible for ensuring the security of transport means passing through its territory.
Gori is 20 miles south of the capital of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia. Following an August 8 Georgian assault on the pro-Russian region, Russian troops struck at the Georgian armed forces with overwhelming force. In addition to ground troops, Russia used its air force to bomb strategic facilities in Georgia. A ceasefire was, subsequently, reached to end five days of deadly fighting. Russia withdrew the bulk of its troops and tanks from Georgia on Friday but continued to build up its forces in and around the two separatist regions after withdrawing from deep inside Georgia. The Russian invasion has caused an international outcry and damaged Moscow's already tense relations with the West.
Georgia is a transit state for two pipeline routes from Azerbaijan to world markets, which Western nations consider strategically important as they strive to decrease Russia's dominance in oil and gas exports.