Russia steps up attacks on Georgia

Michael Mainville
AFP
Monday, Aug 11, 2008

TBILISI (AFP) - Russia jets staged raids and its forces moved deeper into Georgian territory on Monday, officials said, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin denounced the United States for helping Georgia.

Two European Union foreign ministers pressed efforts to broker a ceasefire deal but diplomatic tensions between Russia and the United States held up efforts to pass a UN Security Council call for an end to the fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

Russia and Georgia traded accusations that each was launching attacks, while aid agencies warned of a mounting humanitarian crisis, heightening urgency to international efforts to secure a halt to the fighting.

The Georgian foreign ministry said more than 50 Russian warplanes had flown over Georgian territory. "Tbilisi was bombed. Bombs hit the village of Kojori and Makhata mountain," it said.

Georgian officials said Russian planes bombed radars at Tbilisi airport and civilian targets in the city of Gori, where the UN refugee agency said 80 percent of the 50,000 population had fled because of Russian attacks.

Russian forces carried out military operations around the western city of Senaki to prevent Georgian troops from regrouping and heading back into South Ossetia, news agencies reported quoting the Russian defence ministry.

A Russian military spokesman said 9,000 troops and more than 350 armoured vehicles would be deployed to bolster forces inside the second Georgian separatist region of Abhkazia.

Meanwhile, the South Ossetian separatist government said Georgia had resumed an artillery bombardment of its capital, Tskhinvali, where residents have reported many deaths.

The international Red Cross said it was getting increasing reports of civilian casualties from the conflict in South Ossetia and beyond.

As fighting intensified, US President George W. Bush, Georgia's biggest western ally, said he told Russia's prime minister that Russia's bombing of Georgia was "unacceptable."

"I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia," the US president told NBC television from Beijing.

Putin responded by accusing the US of trying to disrupt the Russian military operation by transporting Georgian troops from Iraq into the "conflict zone."

"It seems that this will not change anything, but will move us away from resolving the situation," said Putin.

Putin compared the actions of Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili to war crimes perpetrated by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"Saddam Hussein, of course, needed to be hanged for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said. "But (not) the current Georgian leadership, which in less than an hour drove tanks through children and old people, burned people alive in their homes. These leaders need to be protected!"

Russia's military acknowledged it had lost 18 soldiers and four planes in the conflict but gave no details of its latest operations.

Saakashvili told foreign reporters several hundred Russian servicemen had been killed and 18 or 19 Russian aircraft shot down.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Finland's Alexander Stubb put forward a European Union peace plan to Saakashvili who signed the peace proposal, a senior Georgian security official told AFP.

It calls for a ceasefire, medical help for victims, controlled withdrawals of troops on both sides and eventual political talks.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will go to Georgia on Tuesday, Saakashvili told journalists. Sarkozy is also due in Moscow to try to hammer out a ceasefire, Kouchner said.

Kouchner and Stubb later arrived in Vladikavkaz, in the Russian territory of North Ossetia, over the border from the conflict zone, where many casualties have been evacuated.

On Tuesday, they will meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said Stubb, current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In Washington, foreign ministers from the G7 countries Monday urged Russia to accept an immediate ceasefire called by Georgia after a telephone conference call, a US State Department official said.

But Moscow had launched its own diplomatic campaign. In Brussels, Russia's Ambassador to NATO called on the alliance to hold an extraordinary Russia-NATO council Tuesday before taking any decision on Georgia.

Medvedev said he would like an OSCE mission to be deployed in South Ossetia , the Kremlin said.

Russia sent thousands of troops, tanks and air support into South Ossetia on Friday after Georgia launched an offensive to seize control of the province, which broke from Georgia in the early 1990s.

The UN Security Council was set for more talks Monday on a ceasefire call in Georgia after the United States and Russia traded barbs in Cold War-style exchanges.