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Russia says has control of S.Ossetian capital
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-09 18:13
A Russian fighter jet attacks a Georgian position near the city of Tskhinvali, 100 km (62 miles) from Tbilisi, August 8, 2008. [Agencies] 

"The town is destroyed. There are many casualties, many wounded," Russian journalist Zaid Tsarnayev told Reuters by telephone from Tskhinvali.

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"I was in the hospital yesterday where I saw many civilian wounded. The hospital was later destroyed by a Georgian jet. I don't know whether the wounded were still there."

Fighter jet

Russian jets carried out up to five raids on mostly military targets around the Georgian town of Gori, close to the conflict zone in South Ossetia, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. But he saw at least one bomb hit an apartment, killing five people.

Russia said the death toll in the two-day conflict had hit 1,500 and was rising, prompting warnings from President Dmitry Medvedev of a humanitarian catastrophe that Moscow was determined to halt by force.

"Our peacekeepeers and reinforcement units are currently running an operation to force the Georgian side to (agree to) peace," Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying at a meeting with Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"They are also responsible for protecting the population. That's what we are doing now," Medvedev added.

Russian troops poured into South Ossetia on Friday, hours after Georgia launched a large-scale offensive aimed at restoring control over the province it lost after a war in the early 1990s.

Russia is the main backer of South Ossetian separatists and the majority of the population, who are ethnically distinct from Georgians, have been given Russian passports.

Tbilisi accuses Russia of launching a war against it.