Fourteen people were killed with several others wounded during a special operation launched by the Georgian interior ministry in a valley close to the Georgian-Russian border, the ministry said late Wednesday.

The deceased included three Georgian security troops and 11 militants, which were sabotaging the border areas near the Lopota Gorge, the ministry said.

Salome Makharadze, a spokesperson with the ministry, told local television station Rustavi2 that the Georgian security troops had surrounded six more people claimed to be saboteurs.

"In the last three days the interior ministry has been carrying out operations to free several groups of hostages," the spokesperson was quoted as saying by the television station.

The hostages were claimed to be taken from a Georgian village known as Lapankuri.

The interior ministry of this South Caucasus country issued a statement earlier in the day to say special operations had been launched against the armed group in the Lopota Gorge, without detailing the number of security troops involved.