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New shooting in South Ossetia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-08 15:23 TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgia's separatist forces in South Ossetia engaged in intensive fighting with government troops Friday, just hours after Georgia's president declared a unilateral cease-fire, officials on both sides said. Separatist officials said that 15 civilians had been killed in the fighting overnight.
Georgian units had almost surrounded Tskhinvali, the rebel capital, and had taken five villages in the separatist-held region, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili told a Tibilisi television station. If Georgian claims of seizing ground are true, the assault would mark a major expansion of the government's foothold in the breakaway region. Yakobashvili said Georgian officials were doing everything they could to avoid casualties and the destruction of property. 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, according to ITAR-Tass. Yakobashvili said Friday Georgia was ready to negotiate, but claimed the South Ossetian officials were dragging their feet in starting talks. |
