The Georgian interior ministry revealed Monday that an attempt had been made on August 28 to down the helicopter carrying US ally [Georgian president] Saakashvili and a team of US senators led by influential Republican lawmaker John McCain. "A Strela-2 anti-aircraft missile was fired at the helicopter over the (Ossetian) village of Avnevi," it said in a statement. "The shell exploded a short distance from the helicopter." The interior ministry said that fragments of the Russian-made surface-to-air rocket had been found and handed over to US officials.