Georgia's claims of self defense against separatist and Russian aggression has been called into question by independent military observers, officials say.

To the contrary, the accounts suggest that Georgia's inexperienced military forces attacked the isolated South Ossetia capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, The New York Times said.

Those actions reportedly exposed civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.

Georgia has repeatedly defended the action as necessary to stop heavy shelling of Georgian villages by Ossetian forces and counter a Russian invasion.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili characterized the attack as a precise and defensive act.

But monitors said in addition to the reported indiscriminate firing, they were unable to verify that ethnic Georgian villages were under heavy bombardment that evening as charged.