GEORGIA: FIGHTING RAGES IN S. OSSETIA, RUSSIAN TANKS HEAD FOR BATTLE

[Chocolaty]

Russian general wounded in Georgia's rebel region
http://www.reuters.com/article/europeCrisis/idUSL9494498
Sat Aug 9, 2008 7:48pm EDT

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The commander of the Russian troops sent to help separatists in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was wounded in an exchange of fire with Georgian forces on Saturday, Russian state television reported.

Lt. General Anatoly Khrulyov was wounded when a column of armoured vehicles of his 58th army came under fire by Georgian forces outside the rebel capital of Tskhinvali, Vesti-24 channel said in a report early on Sunday.

It did not say how serious his wounds were. The channel said a journalist and a cameraman of Russia's state-owned RTR television company had been lightly wounded when filming the incident.

It was not clear if the armoured column had been taking part in five hours of heavy fighting between Georgian forces and South Ossetian rebels outside Tskhinvali which Russian television reported late on Saturday.

South Ossetia said the fighting on Tskhinvali's southern fringes had ended at about mid-night on Saturday. The separatists' site www.cominf.org said Georgian forces had lost 12 tanks and a bomber in the fighting.

The report could not be immediately verified. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

[Aerioch]

IMO; georgia expected the US to come running to their aid, it wont happen so what now?...

Georgia gets to "Pay the Piper" for starting the "recognized" agression by being the first to use formal troops, and they also get to pay KBR, Blackwater, and other 3rd party contractors for the party favors. 

Sadly, thousands of innocent civilians are now dead.

[1aquarian1]

Looks like we may be getting some more info soon.

http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5597&Itemid=65

i would love to be on that conference call.

[The_lizard]

Russian general wounded in Georgia's rebel region
http://www.reuters.com/article/europeCrisis/idUSL9494498
Sat Aug 9, 2008 7:48pm EDT

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The commander of the Russian troops sent to help separatists in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was wounded in an exchange of fire with Georgian forces on Saturday, Russian state television reported.

Lt. General Anatoly Khrulyov was wounded when a column of armoured vehicles of his 58th army came under fire by Georgian forces outside the rebel capital of Tskhinvali, Vesti-24 channel said in a report early on Sunday.

It did not say how serious his wounds were. The channel said a journalist and a cameraman of Russia's state-owned RTR television company had been lightly wounded when filming the incident.

It was not clear if the armoured column had been taking part in five hours of heavy fighting between Georgian forces and South Ossetian rebels outside Tskhinvali which Russian television reported late on Saturday.

Russia has probably 5000 generals anyways, man i would hate to be that guy who shot that general. Have you ever played golden eye? those DD44 Dostovei serious...holes... dual wield

big thanks to all the news reports, you guys and gals are doing a great job.

[foolmetwice]

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[Cobra]

Russian general wounded in Georgia's rebel region
http://www.reuters.com/article/europeCrisis/idUSL9494498
Sat Aug 9, 2008 7:48pm EDT

MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - The commander of the Russian troops sent to help separatists in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was wounded in an exchange of fire with Georgian forces on Saturday, Russian state television reported.

Lt. General Anatoly Khrulyov was wounded when a column of armoured vehicles of his 58th army came under fire by Georgian forces outside the rebel capital of Tskhinvali, Vesti-24 channel said in a report early on Sunday.

It did not say how serious his wounds were. The channel said a journalist and a cameraman of Russia's state-owned RTR television company had been lightly wounded when filming the incident.

It was not clear if the armoured column had been taking part in five hours of heavy fighting between Georgian forces and South Ossetian rebels outside Tskhinvali which Russian television reported late on Saturday.

South Ossetia said the fighting on Tskhinvali's southern fringes had ended at about mid-night on Saturday. The separatists' site www.cominf.org said Georgian forces had lost 12 tanks and a bomber in the fighting.

The report could not be immediately verified. (Reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

If this is true then this only could've happened if the Russian armoured column believed that Georgian forces were further away than they truly were. Poor military intelligence.

Everyone's so sure that Russia will cakewalk through Ossetia but I'm not so sure. Sure they can bomb Georgia till they don't feel like it anymore because Georgia has no Air Force to speak of but on the ground it'd be much tougher.

In mountainous regions like Georgia tanks are burial sites waiting to happen.

[Chocolaty]

Russia bombs Tbilisi airport, says official
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAL768040420080810
Sat Aug 9, 2008 10:05pm EDT

TBILISI (Reuters) - Loud explosions rocked Georgia's capital early on Sunday, and a senior official said Russia had bombed Tbilisi's international airport.

"Russian jet fighters have dropped three bombs on Tbilisi's airport," Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Georgian Interior Ministry's information department, told Reuters.

Reuters correspondents working in Tbilisi heard the three loud bangs shortly after 0530 (0130 GMT).

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

[Chocolaty]

A Georgian armoured column said have been destroyed in Ossetia
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/200808/s2330252.htm?tab=latest
updated 59 minutes ago

South Ossetia says it's troops have kocked out 12 Georgian tanks, repelling an armoured assault on its capital Tskhinvali but fighting continues between Russian and Georgian forces.

Russian warplanes have bombed targets across Georgia in an escalation of the conflict over South Ossetia.

Georgia's government says air raids on the port of Poti and the city of Gori have killed many civilians and Russian warships are heading for the Georgian coast.

UN Security Council talks on finding a negotiated solution have ended in deadlock.

Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, speaking just north of the South Ossetian border, says Georgia's actions are illegal.

He says "The actions of the Georgian authorities in South Ossetia are of course a crime and above all it's a crime against their own people."

"That's because a mortal blow has been dealt to the territorial integrity of Georgia itself. Therefore huge damage has been inflicted on its statehood."

Mr Putin says, "It's hard to imagine how South Ossetia can be convinced to be a part of the Georgian state."

[Chocolaty]

McCain, Obama step up criticism of Russia over Georgia
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09504234.htm
10 Aug 2008 02:26:49 GMT
By Jeff Mason

HONOLULU, Aug 9 (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain stepped up their criticism of Russia's military activity in Georgia on Saturday, calling for Moscow to withdraw its forces and the international community to facilitate peace talks.

McCain, a Republican senator from Arizona who has made foreign policy and national security the centerpiece of his campaign, said he spoke to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Saturday, their second conversation since the crisis erupted.

Obama, on vacation in Hawaii, said he had also spoken to Saakashvili and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Russia and Georgia came into direct conflict after Tbilisi launched an offensive to regain control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

McCain, an outspoken critic of Moscow, said it was clear the situation in Georgia was dire. "Tensions and hostilities between Georgians and Ossetians are in no way justification for Russian troops crossing an internationally recognized border," he said in a statement.

"I again call on the government of Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw its forces from the territory of Georgia."

Obama called for direct talks among all sides and said the United States, the U.N. Security Council and other parties should try to help bring about a peaceful resolution.

"I condemn Russia's aggressive actions and reiterate my call for an immediate ceasefire," Obama said in a statement.

"Russia must stop its bombing campaign, cease flights of Russian aircraft in Georgian airspace, and withdraw its ground forces from Georgia."

McCain has long criticized Russia, particularly for what he sees as its backsliding on democratic reforms and human rights. "For many years, I have warned against Russian actions that undermine the sovereignty of its neighbors," he said. "Unfortunately, we have seen in recent days Russia demonstrate that these concerns were well-founded."

Obama has stepped up his criticism of Russia since the crisis started. He called for an international peacekeeping force and said Russia could not be a neutral mediator for political disputes over South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- both pro-Russian separatist regions backed by Moscow.

"The current escalation of military conflict resulted in part from the lack of a neutral and effective peacekeeping force operating under an appropriate UN mandate," Obama said. "Russia cannot play a constructive role as peacekeeper."

President George W. Bush has urged Moscow to stop bombing immediately, saying it marked a dangerous escalation.

Georgia is a close ally of the United States and has relied on military aid and training from Washington, which has pushed hard for Georgia to become a member of NATO despite strong opposition from Russia.

McCain said NATO's decision to withhold a Membership Action Plan for Georgia "may have been viewed as a green light for aggression in the region."

In New York, several hundred Georgians gathered across the street from United Nations headquarters to hold a candlelight protest against Russia's actions. They held Georgian flags and posters with slogans such as "Putin killer," referring to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department said it had authorized the departure from Georgia of family members of certain staff and repeated a warning to Americans to defer travel to the country. (Writing by Jeff Mason and Patsy Wilson; editing by Chris Wilson)

[Sasha]

38 minutes ago

Russia 'bombs Georgian capital'
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/08/200881012239836481.html

Georgia has said that Russian aircraft bombed the an airport in the capital Tbilisi, just hours after Georgia's parliament approved a decree saying the country is in a "state of war".

Moscow has dismissed Tbilisi's calls for an immediate ceasefire as the fighting continued to spread across Georgia and more Russian tanks rolled into the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

"Russian jet fighters have dropped three bombs on Tbilisi's airport," Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Georgian interior ministry's information department, told the Reuters news agency on Sunday.


The town of Gori came under attack from Russian aircraft [AFP]

Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher, reporting from Tbilisi, confirmed that three loud explosions had been heard from the direction of the airport.

"There is no sign that anything has been stepped up as far as security is concerned ... [but] people are obviously nervous and concerned after the three loud explosions were reportedly heard," he said.

Russian demands

As the United Nations security council met for a third time to discuss the situation, Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN, said a ceasefire "would not be a solution".

"The fighting is still going on. The Georgian forces are continuing to be on the South Ossetian territory," he said.

"The Georgian forces must pull out of South Ossetia.

"And then they must accept the need to sign an agreement on non-use of force with South Ossetians."

Many of the council members, who met in private chambers, appealed for an immediate ceasefire and "expressed grave concern on the further deterioration of the situation," Jan Grauls, Belgian ambassador and the council president this month, said.

"And it is clear that the conflict has now expanded to other areas of Georgia than only South Ossetia."

However, the 15-member council, on which Russia has a veto, was unable to reach an agreement as the United States pushed for a deal that respected Georgia's sovereignty, diplomats said.

Georgia 'under attack'

Russian jets carried out up to five raids targeting military installations around the Georgian town of Gori, about 30km outside South Ossetia, on Saturday.

"Nobody here suspected it [Gori] would come under attack," Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull, reporting from inside Gori, said.


An apartment building was hit in Gori [EPA]

"Civilians were hit very hard by these attacks, allegedly targeting military facilities but not doing a very good job of it.

"Russia says it is bombing Georgia into peace," he said.

The Reuters news agency reported that at least one bomb hit an apartment block, killing five people.

Georgia has said that a Russian air raid "devastated" the Black Sea port of Poti.

Mikhail Saakashvili, Georgia's president, called the attacks an "unprovoked brutal Russian invasion".

"This is about annihilation of a democracy on their borders," he told the BBC news organisation.

"We on our own cannot fight with Russia. We want immediate ceasefire, immediate cessation of hostilities, separation of Russia and Georgia and international mediation."

Abkhazia fighting

There was also fighting in Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region,
where separatist forces had launched air and artillery strikes against Georgian troops, according to the de facto government's foreign minister.

Sergei Shamba said Abkhazian forces intended to push Georgian troops out of the Kodori Gorge. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.

A spokesman for the pro-Georgian Abkhaz government-in-exile said the bombings had been carried out by Russian warplanes.

"Earlier today ... Russian jet fighters bombed two villages in the upper part of the gorge," Raul Kiria, the government in exile's spokesman, said.

Edmond Mulet, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, said the UN was immediately pulling out the military observers in Kodori on advice from officials in Abkhazia.

"At this point we are particularly concerned that the conflict appears to be spreading beyond South Ossetia into Abkhazia," Mulet said on Saturday, adding that Abkhazia had warned of preparations for "a military operation in the Upper Kodori Valley, probably tomorrow morning".

Tskinvali 'in ruins'

Russian tanks and troops surged into South Ossetia late on Thursday to repel a Georgian offensive aimed at reclaiming the region amid fighting that was said to have left hundreds dead.


Russia sent more troops and tanks into South Ossetia on Saturday [AFP]

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to Nato, said "98 per cent of Tskhinvali" was in ruins. "Our troops have re-established control over the city," he said.

However, Eka Sguladze, Georgia's deputy interior minister, said Georgian forces had knocked out about 40 Russian tanks around Tskhinvali and "thwarted a Russian tank attack".

A South Ossetain government statement said that firing died down in the capital early on Sunday and that 12 Georgian tanks were destroyed on the city's outskirts.

Russia's Vitaly Churkin told the UN security council that 2,000 people had been killed in South Ossetia, out of a population of about 70,000.

Tskhinvali residents who survived the bombardment and later escaped the city estimated that hundreds of civilians had died. They said bodies were lying everywhere.

Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister, travelled to the Russian city of Vladikavkaz on Saturday where he met some of the 34,000 people who had fled the fighting.

"The actions of the Georgian powers in South Ossetia are, of course, a crime - first of all against their own people," Putin said.

"The territorial integrity of Georgia has suffered a fatal blow."

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

"Russia is saying that it is actually responding to a direct attack on its citizens and on its 'peace keepers' in South Ossetia," Alexander Nekrassov, a London-based Russian analyst, told Al Jazeera.

"This is a difficult legal situation here because techinically speaking South Ossetia is in the territory of Georgia, so any big Russian troop movement can be interpreted as an invasion of Georgia."

[Sasha]

Russian Ships Steam Toward Georgia as Conflict Grows (Update1)
By Paul Abelsky and Alex Nicholson

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Russia sent warships from the Black Sea fleet toward Georgia as it stepped up its conflict with the former Soviet republic over the separatist South Ossetia region.

The ships included a vessel based in the naval port of Sevastopol and four others from Novorossiysk, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported, without saying where it got the information. Georgian Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze said a ship carrying grain to the Georgian port of Poti was turned away by a Russian warship, suggesting an economic blockade.

``Russia has shown itself capable of crossing every line in this conflict,'' Sharashidze said in a telephone interview late yesterday from Tbilisi, the Georgian capital.

Russian jets crossed the border to attack military and civilian targets in as many as six locations simultaneously, Georgian Security Council Secretary Kakha Lomaia said. Russia's actions amounted to ``full-scale war,'' he said. Russian planes today bombed a military airfield near Tbilisi, Georgian Security Council secretary Kakha Lomaia said in a telephone interview.

``It's all going to hell,'' Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said yesterday in an interview on CNN in which he appealed for international help. ``We are willing to do cease- fire immediately providing the other side stops to shoot and to bomb.''

President George W. Bush said yesterday the fighting was a ``a dangerous escalation'' and called for an ``immediate halt to violence.'' The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory to discourage Americans from visiting the region. Russia demanded a withdrawal of Georgian troops from South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s and exists as a de facto independent state with Russian economic support.

Russian Peacekeepers

President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia's actions were a response to Georgia's assault on its citizens as well as the peacekeepers Russia has had in South Ossetia since the disputed region broke away in the early 1990s. Russia has received no official communication from Georgia about Saakashvili's offer of a cease-fire, the Kremlin press office said by telephone.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to Russia's North Ossetia region to oversee a ``humanitarian operation'' as refugees fled from the violence. Putin made the unannounced visit on his return from Beijing, where he had attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the former president's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said by phone.

Putin met Medvedev early today at the presidential residence in Gorki outside Moscow and called for Georgia's military actions to be investigated by the Prosecutor General's Office. The meeting was broadcast on state television.

Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters in New York that 2,000 civilians have died in South Ossetia since the outbreak of hostilities on Aug. 8 and that 30,000 people have fled their homes and crossed the border into Russia.

Churkin, who spoke at the UN after the Security Council failed for the third consecutive day to agree on a position on the fighting, said Georgia's military actions had ``all the elements of genocide and war crimes.''

Putin Comments

Putin said Russia's actions were ``absolutely justified and legitimate and more important, necessary,'' in a meeting with regional leaders in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, broadcast on state television. Putin's ``visit has no military component,'' and will be short, Peskov said.

Russia will discuss a cease-fire ``only if Georgia withdraws all armed forces from the conflict zone and signs a non-aggression pact with South Ossetia,'' Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on state television today.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has sought support from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and his counterparts in France and Germany, according to an interview with BBC television that was published on the ministry's Web site. He and Rice spoke three times yesterday, the ministry said.

Civilian Casualties

Lavrov said 1,500 civilians and 15 Russian peacekeepers have been killed, while Deputy Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Nogovitsyn said two Russian aircraft had been shot down.

Saakashvili has signed a decree declaring a state of war, Lomaia said. At least 55 Georgians, both civilian and military, have been killed, he said.

The commander of Russian troops in South Ossetia, Lieutenant General Anatoly Khrulyov, was wounded yesterday when a column of armored vehicles moving toward Tskhinvali came under Georgian attack, state television station Vesti-24 reported, without saying how serious his condition was.

EU foreign ministers will meet early next week to discuss ways to resolve the crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said in an e-mailed statement from Paris yesterday.

Sarkozy proposed that a solution involve an immediate cease-fire, ``full respect'' for the territorial integrity of Georgia and a return to the situation on the ground that existed before hostilities erupted.

U.S. presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama separately spoke with President Saakashvili and called for the protection of Georgian sovereignty.

``Tensions and hostilities between Georgians and Ossetians are in no way justification for Russian troops crossing an internationally recognized border,'' McCain said in e-mailed statement yesterday.

The military escalation resulted from the ``lack of a neutral and effective peacekeeping force operating under an appropriate UN mandate,'' Obama said in an e-mailed statement, backing the deployment of international peacekeepers in Georgia's breakaway states.

Peacekeeping Mission

Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, came to power in the 2003 ``Rose Revolution'' backed by the U.S. He vowed to bring South Ossetia and two other separatist regions under central control in a challenge to Russia.

South Ossetia has a population of about 70,000 and is connected to Russia's North Ossetia region by a tunnel through the Caucasus Mountains. Most residents hold Russian passports.

The conflict could endanger U.S. aspirations to secure an emerging energy corridor linking Central Asia to Europe and deals a blow to its plans for bringing the former Soviet republic into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's orbit.

Azerbaijan halted oil exports through the Georgian ports of Batumi and Kulevi because of the fighting, the head of the state oil company said yesterday, according to Reuters and Agence France Presse.

Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alexander Nicholson in Moscow at Anicholson6@bloomberg.net; Paul Abelsky in St. Petersburg at pabelsky@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 9, 2008 23:04 EDT
 

[Sasha]

21 minutes ago

Russia, Georgia exchange fire as conflict escalates
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgxC-E4z5g7Ggl9FEi02BpSkSXVg

TBILISI (AFP) — Russia and Georgia were locked Sunday in an escalating battle over South Ossetia as Tbilisi sought international intervention against what it says is a policy of "annihilation."

Russian planes on Sunday attacked the runway of a military airfield near Tbilisi international airport, a senior Georgian official told AFP.

"Russian planes dropped several bombs on a military airfield not far from Tbilisi International Airport," the secretary of Georgia's national security council, Alexander Lomaia, told AFP.

"There were no planes there, their task was to damage the runway," he added.

Georgian and Russian forces also exchanged artillery fire overnight, South Ossetia said, after Russian planes staged bombing raids across Georgia in a major escalation of the conflict that has reportedly already claimed over 2,000 lives.

US President George W. Bush led a chorus of international calls to end to the bombardment amid fears the conflict would spread to other parts of the volatile Caucasus region.

Russian and Georgian forces exchanged artillery fire overnight in the capital Tskhinvali, which both sides claim to control, the South Ossetian authorities said in a statement.

Russian naval vessels arrived in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, a senior Georgian official told AFP on Sunday.

"Russian ships arrived at the port of Ochamchira," the secretary of Georgia's national security council, Alexander Lomaia, told AFP.

"According to some reports, several Russian ships are patrolling near the port of Poti, and are blocking ships from entering the port with grain and fuel supplies necessary for Georgia," he said.

Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military offensive to take back the province which broke away in the early 1990s after a separatist war.

As the fighting escalated, the leaders of Russia and Georgia stepped up their war of words.

"What they are doing is nothing to do with conflict, it is about annihilation of a democracy on their borders," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in an interview with the BBC.

Saakashvili declared a "state of war" in his country on Saturday but also offered a ceasefire to Russia.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said his country had launched its operation to "force the Georgian side into peace." He later said he would order an investigation into accusations by South Ossetian refugees of Georgian acts of genocide.

Fears of the conflict spreading added urgency to international calls for a ceasefire.

Britain said a joint European-US mission was due to have arrived in Georgia late Saturday to try to help broker a ceasefire with Russia.

But a meeting of the UN Security Council  on Saturday failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire.

France, which holds the EU presidency, announced that it would host a meeting of European foreign ministers early next week and an emergency EU summit could be held.

The European Union "strongly states its commitment to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia and its internationally recognised borders and urges Russia to respect them," said a statement released by France.

The EU "underscores that the military actions (against Georgia) could affect EU-Russian relations," it added.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will visit the region to present settlement proposals, France said.

US President George W. Bush cut into his engagements during a visit to Beijing to call for an end to Russian bombing.

"We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops," Bush told reporters. "We call for an end to the Russian bombings."

Georgia said a Russian air raid had "completely devastated" the Black Sea port of Poti in attacks that the country's UN ambassador likened to "a full-scale military invasion".

This was followed up with air raids on Gori, the main Georgian city closest to South Ossetia.

Apartment blocks in Gori were left in flames and residents said scores of people were killed. Georgian television showed images of the body of a pilot from a Russian jet shot down.

The conflict spread to Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia, where the separatist government said its forces had launched attacks on Georgian troops. Georgia accused Russia of staging the attacks in the Kodori Gorge region, the only part of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to the city of Vladikavkaz, close to Russia's border with Georgia, to meet with South Ossetian refugees and said Russia had been right to launch its offensive.

"From a legal point of view our actions are absolutely well-founded and legitimate and moreover necessary," Putin said, blasting Georgia's "criminal" leadership.

The conflict with Russia has claimed 150 Georgian lives, the foreign minister said, and Russian officials have said at least 2,000 people have lost their lives in South Ossetia.

South Ossetia broke from Georgia in the early 1990s. It has been a constant source of friction between Georgia and Russia, which opposes Tbilisi's aspirations of joining NATO and has supported the separatists without recognising their independence.

[Real Truth]

No one is attacking you, you are over sensitive.

do you make it your goal to ruin every thread with your needless trolling.

[Xill]

At the moment, some people are writing books, making symphonies, creating art that will shine forever in the future and raise humanity's consciousness, while others are going down the abyss of hell killing innocents civilians.

Everyone needs to stop for a second and think about the real question: "To be or not to be?"
We have to realize just how lucky we are to have been given the gift of existence and consciousness. It is not to take lightly, life has no equal in value.

[Sasha]

6 minutes ago

US faults Russia for rising violence in Georgia
By JOAN LOWY
Quad-City Times
http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/08/09/ap/headlines/d92f4iig0.txt
Saturday, August 9, 2008
9:45 PM CDT

WASHINGTON - Russia's use of overwhelming military force against Georgia, including strategic bombers and ballistic missiles, is disproportionate to any threat from the former Soviet state and could escalate tensions in the volatile region, a senior U.S. official said Saturday.

The Bush administration official, who briefed reporters on condition his name not be used because of the sensitive nature of the situation, said Russia has attacked areas in Georgia that are far away from the separatist province of South Ossetia, where the fighting has centered. The official also said the Russian military is striking civilian targets.

"They have employed strategic bombers _ the most potent air weaponry that is in the Russian arsenal .... They actually launched ballistic missile attacks on Georgian territory," the official said. He also said Russia has sent more than 1,000 paratroopers and armor into the region.

Russian bombing has also taken place in Abkhazia, a separate breakaway region of Georgia, far from South Ossetia, the official said.

"This is a dangerous escalation in the crisis," the official said. Russia's military response "marks a severe escalation and is being conducted in areas far, far from the South Ossetia zone of conflict, which is where the Russian side has said it needed to protect its citizens and peacekeepers. So the response has been far disproportionate to whatever threat Russia had been citing."

The U.S. official also scolded Moscow for stymieing attempts at mediation and refusing a cease-fire offer from Georgia.

"The Georgians have offered a cease-fire. The response by the Russians has been to step up the attacks, continue bombing civilians with strategic air assets and then to reject the notion of any international mediation at all _ it's very difficult for us to understand that," the official said. "It is simply not acceptable that anyone would reject an offer of a cease-fire and a plea for international mediation."

The official criticized Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for suggesting Georgia was conducting "genocide" in South Ossetia.

"Those are some pretty powerful words that are really not helping us to end the violence and bring together a new process that can resolve the conflict," the official said. "The line we're hearing right now (from Russia) is quite tough."

President Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, spoke with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday.

"The violence is endangering regional peace, civilian lives have been lost and others are endangered. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for an end to the Russian bombings," a grim Bush told reporters. He did not take any questions.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked with several European counterparts and planned to meet with the Russia's acting ambassador.

John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he had spoken with Georgia President Mikhail Saakashvili late Saturday. McCain called Russia's actions "totally, absolutely unacceptable" and said Bush should "should talk to the American people and talk to the world."

"I would be very direct with President Putin that these actions will have consequences long term, in terms of our relationship with Russia, and it is in violation of the norms of international conduct," he said in an interview with The Associated Press in Las Vegas.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he had talked with Rice and Saakashvili to condemn Russia's recent actions. He said top diplomats from the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations should become directly involved in mediating the military conflict.

"A genuinely neutral mediator _ not the Russian government _ must begin a process of negotiations immediately," Obama said in a statement.

Families and dependents of U.S. Embassy personnel in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, were expected to receive permission to evacuate.

The U.S. official suggested Russia was looking for a way to draw Georgia into a conflict because Moscow wants to keep Georgia out of NATO.

Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia angered Russia by seeking NATO membership _ a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.

Russia wants to "keep Georgia kind of weak and off balance and to make it hard for Georgia to join NATO," the official said.

However, he said the United States and its NATO allies will not be drawn militarily into the Russian-Georgian conflict.

"This is a very localized conflict ... There is not a danger of a regional conflict at all in our minds," the official said.

Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq and is the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. The Georgian government has called home those troops, and efforts are under way now to determine how the U.S. will transport those troops to Georgia, the official said.

Associated Press Writer Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

________________________________


...ballistic missiles reported again, but the reporter is in Vegas so she's handing in somone else's info.

[Sasha]

So what?

Go play somewhere else troll'kin, the grown ups are talking.

[Sasha]

8 minutes ago

Russian planes bomb aircraft plant in Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — A Georgian official says Russian planes have raided an aircraft-making plant on the outskirts of the Georgian capital, but there were no reports of victims.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili says the raid early Sunday targeted the plant on eastern outskirts of Tbilisi and inflicted some damage to the runways of the plant's airfield. Utiashvili says it inflicted no casualties.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DZHAVA, Georgia (AP) — Georgia's Foreign Ministry says that Russian aircraft have bombed Georgian military air bases, inflicting some casualties.

The ministry says that a Russian raid Friday on the Marneuli air base destroyed several Georgian military aircraft and inflicted unspecified casualties. It said that the Russian aircraft also bombed another base in Bolnisi.

Rustavi 2 television said that four people were killed and five others wounded at the Marneuli air base in Georgia.

The Foreign Ministry said the bombing was another evidence of Russian aggression against Georgia and asked the global community to help end it.

[Sasha]

3 minutes ago

Ban Ki-moon calls for negotiations on South Ossetia
Published: 8/9/2008
Turkish Press

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon late Saturday called for an immediate end of hostilities in Georgia and a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

"The secretary-general urges all parties to immediately end hostilities and to engage, without delay, in negotiations to achieve a peaceful settlement," said a statement issued by Ban's office.

"The secretary-general believes that for the success of this endeavour, all armed contingents which are not authorized by respective agreements on South Ossetia should leave the zone of conflict," the statement continued.

Russia sent its tanks and troops to pro-Moscow South Ossetia Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military offensive to take back the province, which broke away in the early 1990s after a separatist war.

Georgian and Russian forces exchanged artillery fire overnight, South Ossetia officials said, while Russian planes bombed the runway of a military airfield near Tbilisi international airport according to a Georgian official.

Russian naval vessels also arrived at the port of Ochamchira in another breakaway Georgian region, Abkhazia.

Ban said he was "profoundly concerned" over mounting tensions in the Abkhaz zone of conflict, including the bombing of the Upper Kodori Valley and the ongoing military build-up along the security zone.

He urged all parties to exercise "maximum restraint" as well as to guarantee the safety and security of UN military observers.

"The secretary-general strongly believes that a lasting solution can only be found by peaceful means," the statement said.

[Sasha]

4 minutes ago

South Ossetian refugees pour into Russia
Argentina Star
Saturday 9th August, 2008 
(IANS)

Mirzur (Russia) Aug 10 (DPA) More than 30 women and children hunched still red-eyed and shell-shocked in the back of a minivan just after reaching safety across the Roki tunnel, separating Russia from the heavy fighting in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

'We're hungry. We spent three days in a bunker with no lights, no gas, no water,' said Marina Toyeva, 32, clutching her eight-year-old son and niece during a stop in the village of Mizur, some 30 km into Russia from the South Ossetian border. 'We have only the clothes on our backs.'

Workers for Russia's migration services passed out sandwiches and water to outstretched hands after flagging the minivan down at one of three checkpoints along the lone road from South Ossetia to Russia.

The war between Russia and Georgia had expanded Saturday, adding to the flow of refugees from South Ossetia, which allied itself with Russia after declaring itself independent from Georgia in the 1990s. Georgia has sought to maintain control of the territory.

The fiercest battles Saturday were in the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, where intense howitzer and tank fire in the vicinity of the town was audible. Shelling intensified in the early afternoon, as Russian reinforcements arriving on the scene went on the counteroffensive.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative in Tbilisi said Friday that more than 2,000 refugees had fled across the border into Russia, and thousands more likely made their way across the pass Saturday.

No fewer than 400 vehicles, including tanks, armoured personnel carriers, military transport carriers and mobile anti-aircraft guns, formed a Russian military convoy headed the opposite direction Saturday to join the fighting.

Relatives of those caught in South Ossetia since the start of fighting huddled in groups watching the colonnade, and raising a cheer when four Russian attack helicopters blazed overhead toward the mountains.

But Lida Gabarayeva, 47, broke into tears as another minivan of refugees arrived with no sign of her fifth-grade niece, left in the care of friends for summer vacation in Tskhinvali before the fighting broke out Thursday.

'I thought they might be with them ... If they're still alive,' she despaired.

Gabarayeva traveled to the border Friday night in an attempt to retrieve the nine-year-old girl. But her niece, a citizen of Georgia, wasn't allowed through, she said standing helpless at the road side, her voice drowned out by the rumble of passing tanks.

'Our husbands are not being let out. Even the old men ... they're all dying fighting,' one refugee Zamira, 36, said, holding her elderly mother's hand in the back of the freshly arrived van. 'But they've also stayed because it brings shame on them to leave.'

A car of five young South Ossetian men had crossed paths with the Russian military convoy, as the car made a run over the border from Tskhinvali for food, one of the men, Sergei, said Saturday.

'The stores are either on fire or empty. We're heading back tonight but we don't know if we can get through,' he said.

On the other side of the four-kilometre, black tunnel, the road was under heavy fire. A key bridge on the road from Tskhinvali had been also been bombed, and heavy shelling kept women and children stuck in improvised bunkers, the refugees said.

'Now people can't get out (from Tskhinvali), even by foot,' said Alik Tomayeva, 41, who has been shuttling people back-and-forth since the fighting broke out. He said he would still try to get through to the capital via another mountain road.

'We will never forget this. There are no words for what we lived,' Toyeva's sister said. 'That such things could happen in the year 2008, I never thought was possible.'

'Even in Iraq, there's not a war like this ... (Georgians) bombed the hospitals where the men are and nobody is collecting the men lying wounded in the street.'



-emphasis added

[Sasha]

20 minutes ago

Strong Blasts Jolt Georgia's Capital
http://www.alalam.ir/english/en-NewsPage.asp?newsid=039030120080810081353
Alalam News

TBILISI, Aug 10--Loud explosions rocked Georgia's capital early Sunday, and a senior official said Russian warplanes had bombed a military airfield outside Tbilisi.

Shota Utiashvili, the head of the Georgian Interior Ministry's information department, told reporters that "three bombs were dropped on a military airfield belonging to Tbilaviastroi plant. There were no casualties".

The plant has been producing Sukhoi Su-25 ground fighters since Soviet days.

He corrected his earlier information that Tbilisi's international airport had been the actual target.

Utiashvili said in the past few hours Russia had brought 6,000 troops into Georgia and a further 4,000 troops by sea and Russian forces were preparing to attack at dawn.

"All of them are waiting for dawn to start active actions. Georgia faces a humanitarian catastrophe," Utiashvili said.

Russian troops and tanks rolled into ex-Soviet Georgia on Friday after Georgian forces began an assault on the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which wants to become part of Russia.

Russian naval vessels also arrived in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Sunday, a senior Georgian official said.

"Russian ships arrived at the port of Ochamchira," said the secretary of Georgia's national security council, Alexander Lomaia.

"According to some reports, several Russian ships are patrolling near the port of Poti, and are blocking ships from entering the port with grain and fuel supplies necessary for Georgia," he said.

Talks at the UN Security Council on ending the fierce fighting in South Ossetia ended in deadlock Saturday as envoys again failed to agree on a call for a truce between Russia and Georgia.

"We have come to the conclusion that it will be very difficult if not impossible to find common ground on a statement," Belgian ambassador Jan Grauls, the council chair this month, told reporters after informal closed-door consultations.

"It is clear that the conflict has now expanded in other areas than South Ossetia, we see a deteriorating situation in Abkhazia," Grauls added, referring to the other Moscow-backed rebel enclave of Georgia.

The collapse marked the third time the Security Council failed to agree on the Belgian-drafted statement that would urge the warring sides to "show restraint and to refrain from any further acts of violence or force."

Meanwhile, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin reiterated Moscow's demand that Tbilisi commit itself to renouncing the use of force and withdraw its forces from South Ossetia, calling the events "genocide."

"The Georgians must pull out of South Ossetia and must agree to sign a document of non-use of force in South Ossetia," he said.

Pointing to the enclave's small population -- estimated at 70,000 -- Churkin said he told the Security Council: "Two thousand killed, is it enough for you? Thirty thousand refugees, is that enough for you?"

"How many people have to be killed for genocide? It's genocide to the South Ossetians," he told reporters after attending Council consultations that again failed to produce agreement on a call for a ceasefire in the bitter fighting between Russia and Georgia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier called for an investigation into alleged acts of genocide by Georgian forces during their offensive against the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN his country was ready to take immediate steps towards a ceasefire in South Ossetia, provided Russia stopped its attacks.

"The violence has to stop. Foreign forces have to be withdrawn," US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said as he stressed the need for a mediation to resolve the conflict.

UN assistant secretary general for peacekeeping Edmond Mulet informed the council that the UN mission in Georgia was forced to withdraw 15 of its peacekeepers from the Kodori Gorge, a Georgian-controlled area of Abkhazia, to ensure their safety as Abkhaz separatists shelled the area.

Georgia claimed to have successfully repelled several Russian attacks on the Kodori Gorge.

Diplomats said Georgia called for yet another meeting of the Council, which could take place in the coming days.

And Mulet said UN chief Ban Ki-moon would release a statement on the crisis shortly.

Earlier Saturday, Georgia declared a "state of war," saying a Russian air raid had "completely devastated" the Black Sea port of Poti.

Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia achieved de facto independence from Tbilisi in the early 1990s, but they are not formally recognized by any state.

Moscow tacitly supports the separatists and maintains peacekeeping troops in the two Georgian rebel enclaves.

[Chocolaty]

Just asked a question. Thanks for your continued immaturity and bad attitude and no one is talking you are just flooding the thread.

Flooding the thread with news!

Did you contribute any news about the war to this thread ChristopherL?

[Real Truth]

Oh, look ANOTHER foaming at the mouth liberal. There was no need to, Sasha did it all.

your whole goal is to annoy everyone on the forum isn't it?

[Chocolaty]

Oh, look ANOTHER foaming at the mouth liberal. There was no need to, Sasha did it all.

Well I was just wondering because I see you disrupting a lot of threads. Is this your contribution to the Prison Planet forum?

[Wanted]

The thing is that I have been getting attacked and having nasty pm's sent to me just for disagreeing with people. So I started talking to them like they talk to me. That mod Biggs even said he deleted my posts because they do not follow what others believe here. What is this communist China, where no opposing views are allowed, even if said respectfully?

Stop ruining the thread that i started. Mods...HELP!!!!!!!! 
F***kin troll get a brain. 
Go back to jref if you love your sheep so much. 

[Wanted]

Russia, Georgia exchange fire as conflict escalates

1 hour ago

TBILISI (AFP) — Russia and Georgia were locked Sunday in an escalating battle over South Ossetia with Tbilisi accusing Moscow of pursuing a policy of "annihilation" as it bombed cities across the country.

Georgian and Russian forces exchanged artillery fire overnight, South Ossetia officials said, while Russian planes bombed the runway of a military airfield near Tbilisi international airport according to a Georgian official.

US President George W. Bush led a chorus of international calls to end to the bombardment amid fears the conflict, which may have already claimed over 2,000 lives, might spread to other parts of the volatile Caucasus region.

Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's military offensive to take back the province which broke away in the early 1990s after a separatist war.

Russian and Georgian forces exchanged artillery fire overnight in the capital Tskhinvali, which both sides claim to control, the South Ossetian authorities said in a statement.

Russian planes attacked early Sunday the runway of a military airfield near Tbilisi international airport, the secretary of Georgia's national security council, Alexander Lomaia, told AFP.

On Saturday, Russian aircraft staged raids on the port of Poti and the city of Gori, where inhabitants said scores of people were killed.

Russian naval vessels also arrived Sunday at the port of Ochamchira in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, Lomaia said.

As the fighting escalated, the leaders of Russia and Georgia stepped up their war of words.

"What they are doing is nothing to do with conflict, it is about annihilation of a democracy on their borders," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.

Saakashvili declared a "state of war" in his country on Saturday but also offered a ceasefire to Russia.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said his country had launched its operation to "force the Georgian side into peace." He later said he would order an investigation into accusations by South Ossetian refugees of Georgian acts of genocide.

Fears of the conflict spreading added urgency to international calls for a ceasefire.

A joint European-US mission was due to have arrived in Georgia late Saturday to try to help broker a ceasefire with Russia, Britain said.

But a meeting of the UN Security Council  on Saturday failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire.

France, which holds the EU presidency, announced that it would host a meeting of European foreign ministers early next week and an emergency EU summit could be held.

The European Union "strongly states its commitment to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia and its internationally recognised borders and urges Russia to respect them," said a statement released by France.

The EU "underscores that the military actions (against Georgia) could affect EU-Russian relations," it added.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will visit the region to present settlement proposals, France said.

US President George W. Bush cut into his engagements during a visit to Beijing to call for an end to Russian bombing.

"We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops," Bush told reporters. "We call for an end to the Russian bombings."

Georgia said a Russian air raid had "completely devastated" the Black Sea port of Poti in attacks that the country's UN ambassador likened to "a full-scale military invasion".

This was followed up with air raids on Gori, the main Georgian city closest to South Ossetia, where apartment blocks in Gori were left in flames and residents said scores of people were killed.

The conflict spread to Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia, where the separatist government said its forces had launched attacks on Georgian troops. Georgia accused Russia of staging the attacks in the Kodori Gorge region, the only part of Abkhazia controlled by Georgia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin flew to the city of Vladikavkaz, close to Russia's border with Georgia, to meet with South Ossetian refugees and said Russia had been right to launch its offensive.

"From a legal point of view our actions are absolutely well-founded and legitimate and moreover necessary," Putin said, blasting Georgia's "criminal" leadership.

Upon returning to Moscow he urged an investigation of Georgian actions be opened, saying: "In my opinion they are already elements of some kind of genocide of the Ossetian people."

The conflict with Russia has claimed 150 Georgian lives, said Georgian Foreign Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili.

Russian officials have said at least 2,000 people have lost their lives in South Ossetia.

South Ossetia broke from Georgia in the early 1990s. It has been a constant source of friction between Georgia and Russia, which opposes Tbilisi's aspirations of joining NATO and has supported the separatists without recognising their independence. Russia has also granted many South Ossetians citizenship.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jgxC-E4z5g7Ggl9FEi02BpSkSXVg 

[Sasha]

...respectfully?

Like the bigoted way you tack together insinuations that, "Muslims are showing their true face to the world with this guy,..."  , "who honor a baby killer."

http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=52464.msg254206#msg254206

Hate Muslims do you?

[Chocolaty]

The thing is that I have been getting attacked

Ahhh... You mean like you just did to me?

and having nasty pm's sent to me just for disagreeing with people.

I'll venture to say it might have a bit to do with your approach... just calm down a bit man, nobody's after you...

So I started talking to them like they talk to me.

I've never seen you before today, why did you lash out at me? What have I done?

That mod Biggs even said he deleted my posts because they do not follow what others believe here.
What is this communist China, where no opposing views are allowed, even if said respectfully?

I can't say i've read most of your threads so i'm not going to say you've been disrespectful, but I see you're very active today and from the couple of your posts that I've read they seems a bit aggressive to me, no offense.

Otherwise, if you're here to seek and share the truth as I and most here are, then welcome to the PP forum!!

[Wanted]

Nope, when people here learn how to talk respectfully, I will do the same back.

You wont last that, long might as well say your goodbyes. You F*** kin bastard troll, stop threading this topic. 

[Real Truth]

Try and grow up and stop whining. It is not my problem you are so thin skinned and I do not even know what jref is. You are the last one that should talk about sheep and for the 5th time I do not support Bush and company, so save your overused talking points for someone else. Such a pretty girl, with a nasty personality.

Why don't you get lost noone wants you and your patriot act supporting self here

[Wanted]

U.N.'s Ban says Georgia conflict widening
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-34921720080810


By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by intensified fighting in Georgia and worried about the violence spreading, his office said on Saturday evening.

Ban urged an immediate end to hostilities and a peaceful solution to the conflict, it said in a statement.

"The secretary-general is alarmed by the escalation of hostilities in Georgia which have resulted in large numbers of casualties and massive destruction in South Ossetia and other regions of Georgia," the statement said.

Ban was "profoundly concerned over mounting tensions in the Abkhaz zone, including the bombing of the Upper Kodori Valley." The statement called for maximum restraint and urged that the safety of unarmed U.N. military observers be guaranteed.

Russian troops and tanks rolled into former Soviet republic of Georgia on Friday after Georgian forces began an assault on the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which wants to become part of Russia.

Russia's military action dramatically intensified its long-running standoff with Georgia that has sparked alarm in the West and led to angry exchanges reminiscent of the Cold War.

Earlier Saturday, U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping Edmond Mulet said there have been "very substantial numbers of casualties, refugees and destruction" in Georgia.

Mulet told the U.N. Security Council that the Abkhaz authorities had asked him to withdraw U.N. military observers, known as UNOMIG, from the Upper Kodori Valley in Abkhazia but had declined to give him a reason.

Mulet said the observers were now at their base in the Abkhaz capital of Sukhumi to avoid getting caught in any cross-fire between Georgian and Abkhaz separatist troops.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he had no information about what was going on in Abkhazia.

Pro-Western Georgia earlier called for a cease-fire after Moscow's bombers widened an offensive to force Tbilisi's troops back out of the region in the Caucasus mountains.

Moscow says its military was responding to a Georgian assault to retake South Ossetia and has launched a peacekeeping operation to protect civilians. Russia backs the separatists who have controlled the regions since a war in early 1990s.

Inside the closed-door council meeting, Churkin compared Russian's operation in South Ossetia to the 1999 NATO operation in Kosovo, diplomats said. Speaking to reporters, he accused the Georgians of committing genocide and ethnic cleansing.


'OUT OF CONTROL'

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff made it clear Washington blamed Russia for escalating the fighting.

"This is a conflict that is expanding and getting out of control," he said. "The proximate cause is the massive escalation perpetrated by outside forces.

The members of the U.N. Security Council tried to agree on an appeal for a cease-fire but negotiations broke down because Russia has refused to pull its troops back to where they were on Aug. 6 and insists on occupying South Ossetia.

Britain's deputy ambassador, Karen Pierce, told Reuters Russia was demanding assurances that Georgian troops would stop fighting and pull out of South Ossetia but had refused to give any assurances they would do the same.

"The Georgians have made an offer of a cease-fire and it's concerning that the Russians won't respond to that," she said.

"It's clear that the Russians are looking to prolong the conflict in some way, because they will give no assurances, either about a cessation of hostilities or about withdrawing their forces."

Wolff made clear he believed Russia bore much of the responsibility.

The Security Council may discuss the crisis again on Sunday.

[Sasha]

13 minutes ago

Georgian Web Sites Under Attack
by, Brian Krebs
Washington Post
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/08/georgian_web_sites_under_attac.html?nav=rss_blog

As Russian bombs rained down on towns in separatist towns of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, hackers mounted a digital assault on the nation's top Web properties this week, knocking government Web sites offline and defacing others.

According to reports from security experts who have been monitoring the ongoing cyber attacks, the Web site for the office of Georgia Foreign Affairs (mfa.gov.ge) was hacked, and its homepage was replaced with images depicting Georgia's president as a Nazi. That site is currently offline.

Other Georgian Web properties, such as the Caucasus Network Tbilisi -- key Georgian commercial Internet servers -- remain under sustained attack from thousands of compromised PCs aimed at flooding the sites with so much junk Web traffic that they can no longer accommodate legitimate visitors.

Security Blogger Jart Armin has been tracking the attacks by conducting Internet traces and lookups at key Georgian Web properties.

The apparently coordinated cyber attacks are reminiscent of recent cyber wars waged against other former Soviet republics that have attracted the ire of the Russian government for various political reasons. Last month, a similar assault targeted important Lithuanian government Web sites. In April 2007, the ultra-wired country suffered major disruptions in much of its information infrastructure, thanks largely to Russian hackers who were upset over the removal of a Soviet World War II memorial from the center of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

[Sasha]

They are showing their true colors by honoring that animal. Should I applaud them for that?

I already said I am against Islam and if you knew ANYTHING about it, you would be to.

Not wanting to be dominated by an ideology does not make one a bigot. Hey, maybe we can all surrender and allow Sharia law. This way we will not be called bigots.

Sharia Law is a fundi form of Islam and that you can't make that connection really demonstrates how clear your thinking processes aren't.

Take a break from the trolling and go read a book, preferably not one not written in the FOX News like half-witted tripe that has thus far sullied several good threads.

[Real Truth]

I do not watch FOX, so get some new talking points.

are you sure because you sure are talking like your one of their major anchourman

[k4l4sh]

stop derailing this tread, please have some respect

I hope this wasnt posted yet, this thread is huge can't read it all now

Sarkozy proposes three-point plan to end fighting
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Georgia/10235960.html

Russiatoday has the most info as far as i've noticed:
Iceman Putain is clearly at his best in this kind of situations:
Georgia leads war against rules – Putin
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28744

Death toll in South Ossetia reaches 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28732 - russiatoday is the opposite of CNN. Just watch them on Youtube to get a glimpse of their side of the propaganda, it's just beautiful: http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/28738/video

and the I found this source, I'll let you decide how good it is
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_282.shtml

Region Related: India sends [10,000] troops to Kashmir riots
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/939a5dde-6498-11dd-af61-0000779fd18c.html - let's hope Pakistan doesn't overreact in an overly unstable region ready to explode, that is the last thing we need

[Sasha]

Death toll in South Ossetia reaches 2000
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28732 - russiatoday is the opposite of CNN. Just watch them on Youtube to get a glimpse of their side of the propaganda, it's just beautiful: http://www.russiatoday.ru/news/news/28738/video

Lots of wow!  That really was like watching CNN through a triple mirror set up, i.e. - believe our propaganda cause everyone else has 'built-in bias'.

 

[JTCoyoté]

They are bringing in the super trolls now... Christopher L. is a RABID Islamophobe, super right wing fascist, kill all of Islam... person... from a very Neocon website that I used to post on before I was banned for holding to the fact that two airplanes and 19 Muslims did not bring down the World Trade Center...

This person posted 174 posts today in just over 6 hours... they should be mostly ignored... since they were to do nothing other than distract from the real news, and cause dissention... as most of you noticed... I have been away from the board for approximately 5 hours... in order to have dinner and a movie with my wife and daughter... in that amount of time this troll completely inundated this board...

Please try to ignore his rantings, as I attempt to clean up the mess... just goes to show you can't be away from the board on a Saturday for more than just a few minutes... when big news is breaking...

Coyoté

"I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people,
except for few public officials."
~George Mason,
3 Elliot, Debates at 425-426

[mr anderson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reuhlteq0VM&feature=related

[Sasha]

11 minutes ago

Georgia withdraws forces from South Ossetia
NDTV Correspondent
Sunday, August 10, 2008,
Gori, Georgia

Is the war between Russia and US-allied Georgia drawing to an end? According to reports, Georgia has withdrawn its forces from the separatist region of South Ossetia although the fighting still continues.

Georgian Interior Ministry said that all troops had withdrawn to positions at or south of those held on August 6, when the current hostilities began.

The Russian ambassador to Georgia has said that as many as 2,000 people have been killed in South Ossetia's capital.

Earlier, Dozens of Russian warplanes bombed civilian and military targets including the Georgian town of Gori, which is located on the border with South Ossetia.

A joint delegation of the US, EU and the Organisation of Security and Co-operation in Europe is now heading to Georgia in the hope of brokering a truce.

[k4l4sh]

Georgia: US training gives Georgia military advantage
Last Updated: 12:11AM BST 10 Aug 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/2531026/Georgia-US-training-gives-Georgia-military-advantage.html

So BST seems to be British Summer Time, and apparently they are already having their midday whilst here in Switzerland it's 7.16AM. How can you post a news article in the future?

edit:
Georgia war sparks Russian market fears
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/08/10/cnruss110.xml

Foreign Ministry: Halt arms sales to Georgia
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009946.html - israel turning it's a$$?

[Sasha]

There goes the report of deescalation and withdrawn troops for S. Occetia, hmmpf.  Georgia's puppet must have gotten word that help is on the way.
_______________________________________________________________
12 minutes ago


++Georgia Declares War++
2000 Feared Dead
Thousands Flee - Moscow Launches Air Assault On Civilians As Conflict Escalates
Aug 10 2008
By Norman Silvester And Chares Lavery
http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/news/newsfeed/2008/08/10/stop-this-slaughter-78057-20691271/


A YOUNG man lies dead in his brother's arms in the rubble as yards away a bloodied elderly woman screams out in agony.

This was the desperate scene in the Georgian town of Gori yesterday after a devastating air strike by Russia.

The crisis escalated as Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili officially declared war on its superpower neighbour.

He said Georgia was "under a state of total military aggression by the Russian navy, air force, large-scale ground operations".

As the death toll rose to 2000 - mainly civilians - Georgia claimed to have hit back by shooting down 10 Russian planes.

Russian aircraft bombed Gori as 30,000 refugees fled their homes in the disputed territory of South Ossetia.

Innocent civilians died as Russian missiles missed military bases and hit apartment blocks.

And US President George Bush urged Moscow to halt the bombing in a region vital to oil and gas supplies for the West.

On the ground in Gori yesterday, bloodied women and children lay on the streets as fire raged through homes.

BBC eyewitness Richard Galpin said: "We saw the impact of the air strikes - buildings on fire. We could hear the Russian jets above us.

"In one air strike, the pilot missed the intended military base, instead hitting two apartment blocks.

"When we arrived flames were pouring out of the buildings and people were still trapped inside.

"A woman begged the firemen and soldiers to help find her family. She said she'd gone into the burning apartment block but had not been able to find them.

"We saw injured civilians being pulled from the buildings. We saw at least one man pulled out dead."

In Tskhinvali, the capital of the disputed region, thousands cowered in shelters as the bombardment went into its second day.

More than 2000 Georgian troops were ordered home from Iraq as world leaders pleaded for peace.

The International Red Cross said hospitals were "overflowing" with casualties. Yesterday Abkhazia, another pro-Russian enclave in Georgia, said their forces had begun a successful operation to drive out Georgian forces.

Russian jets also bombed the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital Tbilisi near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Yesterday Russian Premier Vladimir Putin was reported to have stopped near the disputed territory on his way home from the Olympic opening ceremony.

Experts fear the conflict could escalate as Georgia is a key ally of the US.

President Bush said he was "deeply concerned" about the crisis.

He added: "The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a dangerous escalation in the crisis."

South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in 1992 after a civil war. But the new nation, of mostly Russian natives, has not been recognised by another country.

When Saakashvili was elected, he vowed to bring South Ossetia back under Georgian control.

In recent weeks, six people were reportedly killed by Georgian shelling. Moscow - also angered by Georgia's plan to join NATO - responded with massive force.

Zaza Gachechiladze, editor-in-chief of Georgia's daily newspaper The Messenger, told the Sunday Mail: "Ossettia is Georgia's territory. It has been undermined by terrorists funded by Moscow.

"This is because Russia wants to punish Georgia for its democratic stance and its western ties. At the moment there are between several hundred and two thousand people dead. This conflict is not ethnic, it's not religious, it's about Russia wanting Georgia to be subordinate to them."

Foreign Secretary David Miliband said "It is vital for leaders on both sides to call for fighting to cease and for peace talks to start as soon as possible."

But Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov warned of more attacks to come.

Asked whether Russia could bomb the capital, Tbilisi, Lavrov answered: "Whatever part of Georgia is used for this aggression is not safe."

The Foreign Office yesterday urged Britons not to travel to Georgia - and said expats should quit the country.

MAILFILE

Russia outnumbers the Georgian military by almost 25 to one.

Georgia

Population 4.4 million
Armed forces personnel: 26,900
Battle tanks: 82
Armoured Personnel Carriers: 139
Combat aircraft: 7
Heavy artillery including multiple rocket launchers: 95

Russia

Population: 141 million.
Armed forces personnel: 641,000
Battle tanks: 6717
Armoured personnel carriers: 6388
Combat aircraft: 1206
Heavy artillery: 7550