FIGHTING RAGES IN GEORGIAN SEPARATIST CAPITAL
August 8th, 2008Via: Reuters:
Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, pounded separatist forces in a bid to re-take the territory.
A Reuters correspondent said the roar of warplanes and the explosions of heavy shells were deafening more than three km (two miles) from the town. Many houses were ablaze.
Georgia’s pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said his forces had “freed” the greater part of the territory’s capital, Tskhinvali, and ordered a full-scale mobilization of military reservists.
Russia confirmed fighting in the centre of town.
Georgia said four Russian jets entered Georgian airspace and dropped bombs on two places just south of the territory, which has been outside central government control since the 1990s.
There was no immediate comment on the report from Moscow.
The crisis, the first to confront Russian President Dmitry Medvedev since he took office in May, has fuelled fears of full-blown war in a region emerging as a key energy transit route and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.
NATO, the European Union and the United States, a vocal Georgian ally, all urged a halt to the bloodshed while Moscow vowed to respond after it said several Russian peacekeepers were killed by Georgian artillery fire.
