 The strategic importance of Khetagorogo was due to its position at the road connecting Georgian-controlled parts of south-western South Ossetia with Tskhinvali and giving access (2 kilometers north-east) to the only Ossetian-controlled road that connected Tskhinvali with Russia through South Ossetian town of Java.During the 2008 Battle for Tskhinvali, the village was assaulted, on the night from 7 to 8 of August, by the Georgian government troops.The Georgian side accused the Ossetian militias of using the village as their base for shelling of the nearby villages earlier in August 2008 while South Ossetians claimed that Georgians had been shelling Khetagurovo from Avnevi"