Georgian army moves to retake South Ossetia

By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI, Associated Press Writer

TBILISI, Georgia - Government troops launched a major military offensive Friday to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia and the president accused Russia, which has close ties to the separatists, of bombing Georgian territory.

Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said the offensive will draw unspecified retaliation.

Separatist officials in South Ossetia said 15 civilians had been killed in fighting overnight after Georgia attacked with aircraft, armor and heavy artillery. Georgian troops fired missiles at the regional capital, Tskhinvali, an official said, and many buildings were on fire.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakasvhili said in a televised statement that Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities. He said there were injuries and damage to the buildings.

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.

"A full-scale aggression has been launched against Georgia," he said in a televised statement.

He urged Russia to immediately stop bombing the Georgian territory. "Georgia will not yield its territory or renounce its freedom," he said.

But Putin, speaking in televised remarks Friday during his trip to the opening of the Beijing Olympics, blamed Georgia for launching the effort to take control over South Ossetia and warned it will cause an unspecified retaliatory action.

Georgia's military action causes "grave concern and it will certainly lead to retaliatory actions," he said.

South Ossetia has close ties with Russia, and the escalation of fighting there has drawn fears that Russia may join fighting.

Saakashvili said government troops have seized the outskirts of Tskhinvali and are fighting for control of the center. Georgian forces also have seized several villages around the capital.

In his televised address, Saakashvili also announced a full military mobilization with reservists being called into action.

The fighting in South Ossetia raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has peacekeepers in the region.

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.

Most residents of both provinces have Russian passports. An open war could prompt Russian to send in more forces under the claim of protecting its citizens.

Gen. Mamuka Kurashvili, a Georgian military officer in charge of operations in the region, said on Rustavi 2 television that the Georgian forces moved to "establish constitutional order in the region."

The leader of Russia's province of North Ossetia rushed to Tskhinvali. "We are jointly organizing defense here," Teimuraz Mamsurov said in the city, according to the Interfax news agency.

Mamsurov said hundreds of volunteers from North Ossetia were streaming across the border into South Ossetia, Interfax said. It also quoted the separatist leader of Abkhazia as saying that some 1,000 volunteers from his region were heading to South Ossetia.

Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said Georgian officials were doing everything they could to avoid casualties and the destruction of property.

But Boris Chochiyev, a minister in the South Ossetian government, said that Georgian troops shelled the center of Tskhinvali with truck-launched missiles.

Chochiyev asked the Russian government to defend South Ossetians, most of whom hold Russian passports, from what he called aggression.

The Russian government blamed Georgia for the fighting, and called on Tbilisi to commit itself to peaceful resolution of the conflict.

"The Georgian leadership should come to their senses and return to civilized ways of resolving difficult issues," Russian Foreign Ministry Boris Malakhov said Friday.

Yakobashvili said Friday that Georgia was ready to negotiate, but claimed the South Ossetian officials were dragging their feet in starting talks.

At the request of Russia, the United Nations Security Council held an emergency session in New York but failed to reach consensus early Friday on a Russian-drafted statement.

The council concluded it was at a stalemate after the United States, Britain and some other members backed the Georgians in rejecting a phrase in the three-sentence draft statement that would have required both sides "to renounce the use of force," council diplomats said.

"We think that this is a very serious error of judgement and political blunder," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkins said of the council members' disagreement. "I hope that the Georgian side will reconsider its reckless actions in the area of the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict."

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 fighting was the worst outburst of hostilities in the region since it won a de-facto independence in a war that ended in 1992.

Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces, but Georgia alleges they back the separatists. Russia also was criticized by the West as provoking tensions by sending warplanes over South Ossetia last month.

Most of South Ossetia, which is roughly 1.5 times the size of Luxembourg, has been under the control of an internationally unrecognized separatist government since 1992. Georgian forces hold several swaths of it.

Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia.

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