Moscow/Tbilisi - Russia on Sunday intensified airstrikes and
a naval blockade against Georgia, as international diplomats sought
ways to bring a ceasefire to the Caucasus province South Ossetia.
Three Russian air force Su-25 bombers struck an airfield adjacent
to a military aircaft factory outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi
shortly after dawn, causing damage but inflicting no casualties, a
senior Georgian official said.
Russian bombers also struck a Georgian military base near the town
of Bolnisi and in the remote Kodori valley near the border of
Abkhazia. UN observers quit the gorge later in the day, according to
Rustaveli-2 and Vesti-24 television reports.
The war widened on Saturday with Abkhazia, like South Ossetia a
separatist Georgian province supported by Moscow, attacking Georgian
forces.
Warships from Russia's Black Sea fleet by Sunday morning had
clamped down a naval blockade on Georgia's coastline, turning back
'several civilian ships,' said Aleksander Lomaia, Georgia's National
Security Council Chief, in a statement.
Among freighters halted with warning shots was a Moldovan-flagged
vessel carrying wheat to the port Poti, threatening Georgia's food
supplies, Lomaia claimed.
Georgian intelligence gave the elements of the Russian squadron as
three amphibious assault vessels, two anti-submarine warfare vessels,
a reconnaissance ship, two minesweepers, two missile boats, and a
missile cruiser.
The Russian flotilla is substantially larger than Georgia's tiny
navy, currently bottled up in Poti.
The site of the fiercest ground fighting over the last three days,
the unofficial South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, saw infantry
battles throughout the night as Russian forces engaged Georgian
troops holding heights overlooking the town.
Aleksander Lomaia, Georgia's National Security Council chief,
called the retreat 'a relocation to other positions.'
Heavy artillery fire on the city, a feature of fighting since the
war's outbreak, had practically halted by early Sunday morning,
according to a South Ossetia army statement.
Some civilians remained trapped in the city, most of whose
buildings are now badly damaged or destroyed, witnesses said.
Corpses in some cases three days old still were lying in
Tskhinvali's streets, as artillery fire from both sides made burial
impossible, the Interfax news agency reported.
Georgia gave its military losses as of Saturday at some 50 men
dead and 450 wounded. Russia had admitted to 12 men dead and 150
injured.
Estimates of civilian dead in the fighting have exceeded 1,600
people. The Tskhinvali town hospital alone as of Sunday morning was
treating 200 injured and had more than 50 dead in its morgue,
according to the report.
Some 2,000 Russian paratroopers and Spetsnaz special forces
infantry backed by artillery and tanks threw Georgian forces out of
the town on Saturday in intense house to house fighting.
Russian ground forces in Ossetia numbered in excess of 6,000 men
with the strength expected to rise as the Kremlin rushed more
reinforcements to the region, Georgian officials said.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a Saturday visit to
Russia's 58th Army headquarters in Vladkavkaz said the Kremlin's
intention was to push out or destroy all Georgian forces in South
Ossetia. He justified the Russian offensive as part of a peacekeeping
operation.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili the same day accused Russia
of conducting all-out war against Georgia, pointing to airstrikes and
a naval blockade outside the South Ossetia region.
The international community has failed to produce any practical
means towards reaching a ceasefire in the four-day-old conflict. The
UN's Security Council on Saturday met in emergency session on South
Ossetia and, for the third day in a row, was unable to decide even on
a common position statement, because of differences between Russia
and the US.
Volodymyr Ohryzko, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, flew into Tbilisi
on Sunday morning. His mission was to act, if possible, as an
intermediary in dialogue between the Russian and Georgian government,
according to a Ukraine Foreign Ministry statement.
Russia's government was by the weekend moving quickly towards
establishing even tighter links with the South Ossetia regime, with
Putin announcing Moscow would spend a half billion dollars to rebuild
Tskhinvali, and provincial Russian agencies offering aid to an
estimated 34,000 refugees from the fighting.
Russia not only would provide the refugees food and shelter, but
make sure that children now living in temporary housing or with
relatives on the Russian side of the border, would start their school
year on time, Putin said during a Sunday visit to the Russian city
Gorkiy.
Georgia on Saturday said it was recalling a 2,000-man infantry
brigade currently serving in Iraq and accounted the Georgian army's
most effective fighting force.
Its return home would, however, be problematic, with a Russian
blockade likely to prevent shipment of the brigade's heavy equipment
home by sea, and the Russian air force potentially able to intercept
any passenger flight from Iraq to Georgia.
Georgian media reported that US aircraft might carry the Georgian
infantrymen home, placing Washington and Moscow on a collision
course.
Another potential flashpoint for a widening of the war was in the
Black Sea near the Georgian port Batumi, where Turkish warships had
taken up station. There had been no reports by Sunday of contact
between the Turks, and elements of the Russian navy operating further
south.
Georgia's Olympic team on Sunday reversed a Saturday decision to
quit the Beijing Olympics and would compete in China as planned,
according to an Interfax report.
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