Rockets and shells rained down on this besieged provincial capital today, and two narrowly missed Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze, officials said.
It was Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister, who ordered troops into the region 11 months ago after Abkhazian separatists declared independence from Georgia.One shell hit the villa where Shevardnadze was staying and another exploded in the yard, said Saso Margishvili, head of the Georgian armed forces press center.
He said Shevardnadze was unhurt.
Shevardnadze arrived in this Black Sea resort city on July 2, when rebel forces launched the most ferocious offensive of the war. He has been staying in a villa that once belonged to dictator Josef Stalin, about two miles from the devastated city center.
Determined to draw world attention to Sukhumi's plight and boost the city's flagging morale, Shevardnadze has refused to leave.
Since the war began in this narrow, mountainous strip of land on the Black Sea bordering Russia, more than 4,000 people have died and tens of thousands made homeless.
Sukhumi is surrounded and rebel forces are steadily inching closer. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, and much of the city's downtown is a smoldering ruin.
More Abkhazian troops were reported massing west of Sukhumi near the village of Eshera Friday. Saso Margishvili, head of the Georgian armed forces press center, said it appeared they were preparing for a full-scale assault.
"The fighting in Abkhazia has entered a decisive phase," he told reporters in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
Georgian officials accuse Russia, which covets access to the Black Sea, of aiding the Abkhazians.
Georgian Prime Minister Tengiz Sigua on Thursday said Russia had been sending food and fuel to rebel forces in their stronghold city of Gudauta. Russia consistently denies taking sides in the civil war.