Thread: Russian forces have entered the capital of Georgia's breakaway region of South Osseti

Fighting worsens in South Ossetia
Footage reportedly shows Russian tanks entering South Ossetia


Moscow sent in armoured units after Georgian forces shelled the city of Tskhinvali and moved against Russian-backed separatists.
Eyewitnesses have spoken of large-scale casualties and the separatists estimate 1,400 people have died in the fighting.
Russia said its troops had fired on Georgian positions and vowed to defend its citizens in South Ossetia.

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Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili says he is willing to agree an immediate ceasefire
Russian tanks have reportedly reached the northern suburbs of Tskhinvali.

Trouble flared when Georgian forces moved on Thursday night to regain control of the province, which has had de facto independence since a war against Georgia that ended in 1992.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Russia was making war on his country.
He told the BBC: "Our troops are attacked by thousands of troops coming in from Russia."

I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars. It's impossible to count them now
Lyudmila Ostayeva
Tskhinvali resident


He said Georgia had shot down several Russian planes and accused Moscow of bombing Georgian air bases and towns, resulting in the death of 30 military personnel and civilians.
Despite denials from Moscow, the Russian air force has been carrying out air raids in South Ossetia and Georgia itself, says the BBC's Richard Galpin, in Gori, eastern Georgia.
'Ethnic cleansing'
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he had to act to defend South Ossetia's civilians, most of whom have been given Russian citizenship.
He also voiced anger over the reported fatalities of 10 Russian peacekeepers in the breakaway province.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
"We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished," he said. "Those responsible will receive a deserved punishment."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow had received reports that villages in South Ossetia were being ethnically cleansed.
The BBC's Matthew Collin in Tbilisi says battles continue around Tskhinvali with the sound of explosions, rocket fire and military planes flying overhead.
Witnesses said the regional capital was devastated.



SOUTH OSSETIA TIMELINE
1991-92 S Ossetia fights war to break away from newly independent Georgia; Russia enforces truce
2004 Mikhail Saakashvili elected Georgian president, promising to recover lost territories
2006 S Ossetians vote for independence in unofficial referendum
April 2008 Russia steps up ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia
July 2008 Russia admits flying jets over S Ossetia; Russia and Georgia accuse each other of military build-up
7 August 2008 After escalating Georgian-Ossetian clashes, sides agree to ceasefire
8 August 2008 Heavy fighting erupts overnight, Georgian forces close on Tskhinvali



Fleeing resident Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, told AP news agency: "I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars. It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."
International Red Cross spokeswoman Anna Nelson said it had received reports that hospitals in Tskhinvali were having trouble coping with the influx of casualties and ambulances were having trouble reaching the injured.
In other developments:

• Georgia's president said his country was calling home 1,000 troops from Iraq to help deal with the crisis
• Russia said it would cut all air links with Georgia from midnight on Friday
• The US voiced support for Georgia's territorial integrity after President George W Bush spoke with Russian PM Vladimir Putin about the conflict at the Beijing Olympics
• The European security organisation, the OSCE, warned that the fighting in South Ossetia could escalate into a full-scale war
• The US and the EU were reported to be sending a joint delegation to the region to seek a ceasefire and Nato said it was seriously concerned

Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Europe | Fighting worsens in South Ossetia

Published: 2008/08/08 18:48:24 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

"You don't start a military showdown with someone who can turn the gas off."
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | No quick fix to S Ossetia conflict

Kind of says it all. Georgia has been utterly reckless, and is gonna cop a slapping from Russia (it's happening now). Europe won't intervene- it's not that dumb. Ossetia wants to be Russian anyway, not part of Georgia.

I'm not sure of the outcome, but heres my guess- Ossetia will become part of Russia, and Georgia will become the latest Nato military outpost.

Kind of puts the current poncing about on the Thai Cambodian border into perspective really.

It was bound to happen.

Russia has been flexing it's muscles for the last couple of years and everybody has been ignoring it.

Russian forces sink Georgian ships
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
23:57 Mecca time, 20:57 GMT


Russian forces in armoured personnel carriers had "taken over the town of Gori"
[Al Jazeera]

Russian forces have sunk several coast guard vessels in Georgia's military port of Poti, Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid has reported from the scene.

The attack on Wednesday follows a day of dramatic developments in the Russia-Georgia conflict amid what appears to have been an escalation of military action on the ground.

Abdel Hamid said: "Russia is clearly on the offensive.

"We have seen more and more Russian troops coming into the area all day - a continuous build up of forces including columns of tanks and truck all along the roads here.

"They came into this area and destroyed six Georgian vessels.

Map

Key locations in the conflict

"From what we understand, they came with the specific task of destroying all the military facilities of the Georgians," she said.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull said: "Poti is one of the most important ports in the Black Sea.

"The offensive means that the ceasefire is dead - back to ground zero."

Convoy tailed

Russian military vehicles earlier headed towards the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reported.

Fisher tailed a convoy of Russian armoured vehicles on the road from the town of Gori, less than 60km from Tbilisi.

"No more than 100 metres away is an armoured personnel carrier with three Russian soldiers on top ... behind that there is a long convoy of Russian military vehicles," he reported.

"The fact Russian forces have moved so far into Georgian territory will be seen as an act of provocation," Fisher said.

"They're not moving at a fast speed, but they are moving towards Tbilisi.

"It is only 60km from Gori to Tbilisi, but this doesn't look like an invasion force."

He later said the convoy had come to a halt before heading back to Gori.

"Act of provocation"

Georgian and Russian officials have traded accusations that troops from each side have been acting against the spirit of an EU-mediated peace plan agreed in Moscow the previous day.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from Tbilisi said: "This is an extraordinary show of Russian force.

"This seems to have overstepped the bounds of the Russian side of the ceasefire - they [had] pledged not to move from their positions and to stop firing."

The events came a day after Nicholas Sarkozy, the French president, hailed the EU-mediated ceasefire agreement reached in Moscow between Georgia and Russia.

Aljazeera's Neave Barker, reporting from Moscow, said: "These are disturbing developments given all the work that was done by the EU yesterday."

He said the Russians had agreed with the Georgians on Tuesday to withdraw to the positions they were in before the outbreak of the conflict.

But he added: "We have heard from our colleagues on the ground that this isn't the case."

Earlier the secretary of Georgia's security council told local television that 50 Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers were in Gori, about 30km from the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

'Occupying forces'

"Russian occupying forces were continuing movements across Georgia despite the ceasefire," Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's president, said early on Wednesday as he stood alongside the leaders of other former Soviet states.

Saakashvili, centre, said Russian forces were "continuing movements"
[AFP]

But General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, Russia's deputy chief of staff of the armed forces, said it was Georgian forces that were violating the ceasefire.

"Georgian forces have begun their pullback towards Tbilisi but no active withdrawal has yet been observed," he said.

"We are still obliged to fulfil our mission by taking out firing positions, snipers and so on."

Earlier Al Jazeera's Fisher reported that Russian forces in tanks and armoured personnel carriers had essentially "taken over the town of Gori".

"I myself saw three personnel carriers on the edge of the town ... but there was no doubt they were moving towards Gori," he said.

However, Russia's military on Wednesday repeatedly denied that any troops were inside Gori.

"Neither Russian peacekeepers nor any units subordinate to them are present in Gori," the Interfaxagency quoted a Russian military spokesman as saying.

Russian demand

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said that a commitment in the peace plan drafted by the French under which Georgian forces would withdraw to "permanent positions" meant they should return to barracks.

Russia's foreign ministers says troops will stay until Georgia withdraws
[AFP]

"Upon the withdrawal of Georgian troops to their barracks, Russian troops will return to the territory of the Russian Federation," Lavrov said.

"Our peacekeepers will remain in South Ossetia," he said, referring to peacekeeping units separate from the regular army that have been deployed in the Georgian province for 15 years.

Saakashvili said on Wednesday that Russia was responsible for "Balkan-type and World War II-type ethnic cleansing and purification campaigns" during the conflict.

"We are getting reports of large-scale violation of human rights of the worst of the case," he said.

"The town of Tskhinvali was turned into Grozny Two by Russian carpet bombardment and I really want people to go in and check and verify what kind of bombs are these.

"I have been hearing accusation that this was Georgian bombing and this is not true."

Source:Al Jazeera and agencies

aljazeera.net