MOSCOW — Fewer than 100 civilians died in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia during last month's conflict, human rights activists said Thursday, a far smaller number than Russian and South Ossetian officials have claimed.
Tatiana Lokshina, a Russian researcher for the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch, said trips to a hospital, a cemetery and conversations with residents failed to corroborate claims by Russia and its South Ossetian allies that 1,500 and even as many as 2,000 civilians were killed.
