Georgia, August 10
Russian troops and tanks took the capital of the separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia today after a bloody three-day battle as Georgian forces retreated and offered a ceasefire.

Russia ordered in soldiers and bombed Georgian targets after Tbilisi attempted on Thursday evening to retake South Ossetia, a small pro-Russian province which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.

The United States, Georgia’s main ally, condemned Moscow’s military action and warned that any further escalation could have a “'significant, long-term impact” on relations. It called on Russia and Georgia to cease hostilities and return to their pre-conflict positions, under which Moscow acted as a peacekeeper in South Ossetia.

Georgia’s foreign ministry said it had told Russia today evening that it was ready “to immediately start negotiations” on a ceasefire. Russia confirmed it had received the note but said Georgia had not stopped hostilities and continued to shell South Ossetia. Georgia accused Russia of again bombing a military airport on the outskirts of Tbilisi today evening, after the ceasefire offer.

In a possible opening of a second front in the conflict, Georgia accused Russia of starting a military operation earlier today in Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia to the west of South Ossetia. Moscow, however, denied involvement.

A Georgian government source today said 130 civilians and military personnel had been killed and 1,165 wounded, many because of Russian bombing inside Georgia, but Russia denied hitting civilian targets.

On the other hand, Russia’s military commander on the ground in South Ossetia, General Anatoly Khrulyov, was wounded by shrapnel when his convoy came under Georgian fire, Russian agencies reported.

“As of today most of the city (Tskhinvali) is controlled by Russian peacekeeping forces,” Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn of the Russian General Staff told a briefing in Moscow.

Meanwhile, the White House criticised Russia’s actions, which included bombing at least three Georgian targets outside South Ossetia. “We deplore the dangerous and disproportionate actions by Russian forces and we would be particularly troubled if these attacks are continuing now as the Georgians are pulling back,” said President George W Bush’s deputy national security adviser James Jeffrey.

Russian television showed what it said were pictures from Tskhinvali of burnt-out buildings, wounded civilians receiving medical treatment in basements and crying mothers complaining of lack of food and water. “The Georgian tanks fired at everything they saw, including women and children,” one man said after his evacuation over the border to the Russian region of North Ossetia.

Pictures on NTV television showed Tskhinvali’s main hospital in ruins and most of the more than 230 patients crammed into the basement. Patients, many of them wincing, were receiving treatment on tabletops from clearly harried doctors. A few bare lightbulbs provided scant illumination and the report said the hospital had no ready supply of water. Some patients sat listlessly on beds jammed into a tiny, dim area with unfinished walls.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cut short his visit to the Olympics and flew yesterday to a field hospital in North Ossetia, visiting wounded troops and evacuees, and denouncing what he termed Georgia’s “crimes against its own people”.

Putin later briefed a Moscow-bound Medvedev on his trip, in a televised exchange which underlined Putin’s continued dominance of Russian politics and government. — Reuters