MOSCOW, August 10, 2008 (AFP) - A high-ranking Russian officer was wounded Saturday in South Ossetia when the military column he was travelling in came under attack, a Russian television station reported.

General Anatoly Khrulev, commander of Russia's 58th army, was lightly wounded when his car was hit by gunfire in the breakaway Georgian region, the news station Vesti reported.

Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military offensive to take back the province which broke away in the early 1990s after a separatist war.

Two of the channel's correspondents were also wounded in the attack, and were evacuated and operated on at a Russian hospital, Vesti added.

Russian officials have said at least 2,000 people have died in fighting in the regional capital Tskhinvali.