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Georgia, Russia face off at Ossetian capital

Georgia, Russia face off at Ossetian capital

Major Invasion: 1,400 reported dead as Georgia moves troops home from Iraq

by Margarita Antidze, Reuters - via Ottawa Citizen

Published: Friday, August 08, 2008

MEGVREKISI, GEORGIA: Georgia said on Friday its forces were in control of the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, but rebels said Russian armored vehicles had entered the northern edges of the city.

"Tskhinvali and the heights around Tskhinvali and the majority of the villages in South Ossetia are under the control of Georgian forces," Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a televised address.

However, the separatists' press service said on its website cominf.org on Friday: "Russian armoured vehicles have entered the northern suburbs of Tskhinvali." It added that Georgian troops had started to retreat.

Georgian soldiers sit in their vehicles near the city of Tskhinvali, 100 kilometres from Tbilisi, Aug 8. Georgian troops, backed by warplanes, pounded separatist forces on the outskirts of the South Ossetian capital on Friday, hours after launching an assault on the breakaway region following a short-lived truce. Russia claims to have fought them back.

Moscow said its troops were responding to a Georgian assault to retake the breakaway region, and Saakashvili said the two countries were at war.

The Georgian leader said on television: "What Russia is doing in Georgia is open, unhidden aggression and a challenge to the whole world.

"If the whole world does not stop Russia today, then Russian tanks will be able to reach any other European capital."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia to withdraw combat troops from Georgia and stop air strikes. "We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil," she said in a statement.

-- Source: http://tinyurl.com/erri176

Additional reference/BBC Video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7548715.stm