Russia, Georgia troops battle on border
Hundreds of deaths alleged in region’s capital as tanks, aircraft deploy
MSNBC News Services
updated 12:46 p.m. ET, Fri., Aug. 8, 2008
TSKHINVALI, Georgia - Russia sent tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive Friday to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, threatening to ignite a broader conflict
Georgia’s pro-Western president said the two countries were at war, while the Bush administration urged both sides to reach a truce and said it was sending an envoy to the region.
South Ossetia’s rebel leader Eduard Kokoity claimed there were ”hundreds of dead civilians” in the region’s capital of Tskhinvali, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. The fighting is the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won de facto independence in a war that ended in 1992.
The roar of warplanes and the explosions of heavy shells were deafening around Tskhinvali. Many houses were ablaze.
“I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,” said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. “It’s impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.”
The main hospital in Tskhinvali had ceased functioning and ambulances were unable to reach wounded civilians, the International Red Cross reported.
“As a result of many hours of shelling from heavy guns, the town is practically destroyed,” Marat Kulakhmetov, commander of Russian peacekeepers in the territory, earlier told Interfax by telephone from Tskhinvali.
Russian artillery near capital
A senior Russian military commander said parts of Russia’s 58th army were outside the capital, where fighting raged between Russian-backed separatists and Georgian forces sent in on Friday to seize it.
“Georgian troop positions firing on Tskhinvali and peacekeepers were suppressed by artillery fire and tank units of the 58th Army, which are outside the capital of South Ossetia,” said Russian Army Col. Igor Konashenkov.
Ten Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded when their barracks were hit in Georgian shelling, said Russian Ground Forces spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.
Georgia’s foreign ministry said Russian jets destroyed several Georgian military aircraft and inflicted unspecified casualties. It said that Russian aircraft also bombed another base in Bolnisi.
Rustavi 2 television says four people were killed and five others wounded at the Marneuli air base.
Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili said 150 Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles had entered South Ossetia from neighboring Russia.
“Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory,” Saakashvili told CNN, calling on Washington to help.
A White House spokesman said that President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had discussed the situation in Beijing, where both are attending the Olympic Games.
Bush later pledged U.S. support for Georgia’s territorial integrity. “I want to reiterate on his behalf that the United States supports Georgia’s territorial integrity and we call for an immediate cease-fire,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
“We urge all parties, Georgians, South Ossetians and Russians, to de-escalate the tension and avoid conflict,” she added.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Georgia of driving people from their homes. “We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives,” he said.
Georgia has allied itself with the West and is pushing for membership in NATO, a bid strongly backed by the Bush administration. It lies at the heart of a region emerging as a vital energy transit route.
World distracted by Olympics?
The fighting broke out when much of the world’s attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders were on their way to Beijing.
Saakashvili, who insists his government’s military action was provoked, noted the timing in an interview with CNN. “Most decision makers have gone for the holidays,” he said. “Brilliant moment to attack a small country.”
Speaking earlier on Georgian television, Saakashvili accused Russia of sending aircraft to bomb Georgian territory, which Russia denied.
Putin did, however, warn that the Georgian attack would draw retaliation and his defense ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. The country has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership — a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
Georgia also has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the United States and Britain. On Friday, it said it would redeploy 1,000 of those troops to South Ossetia.
Georgia’s president said Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.
“A full-scale aggression has been launched against Georgia,” Saakashvili said in a televised statement. He also announced a full military mobilization with reservists being called into action.
Seven civilians were wounded when three Russian Su-24 jet bombers flew into Georgia and bombed the town of Gori and the villages of Kareli and Variani, Deputy Interior Minister Eka Sguladze said at a briefing.
She said that four Russian jets later bombed Gori, the hometown of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, but that raid didn’t cause any casualties.
Some villagers fled into Russia.
“I saw them (the Georgians) shelling my village,” said Maria, who gave only her first name. She said she and other villagers spent the night in a field and then fled toward the Russian border as the fighting escalated.
Russian official criticizes ‘dirty adventure’
A senior Russian diplomat in charge of the South Ossetian conflict, Yuri Popov, dismissed the Georgian claims of Russian bombings as misinformation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Russia’s defense ministry denounced the Georgian attack as a “dirty adventure.”
“Blood shed in South Ossetia will weigh on their conscience,” the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site. “We will protect our peacekeepers and Russian citizens,” it said without elaboration.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev later chaired a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, vowing that Moscow will protect Russian citizens.
“In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located,” Medvedev said, according to Russian news reports. “We won’t allow the death of our compatriots to go unpunished.”
Saakashvili long has pledged to restore Tbilisi’s rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and built up ties with Moscow.
Worsening relations
Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia.
The Georgian attack came just hours after Saakashvili announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast late Thursday in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict.
Georgian officials later blamed South Ossetian separatists for thwarting the cease-fire by shelling Georgian villages in the area.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
