Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Good news folks.

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Georgia says Russian aircraft bombed its air bases

By MUSA SADULAYEV, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago

DZHAVA, Georgia - 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.

More here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/..._south_ossetia

[RSNATION]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

A VERY GOOD ANALYSIS


ANALYSIS-Georgia takes gamble with move on rebels
Fri Aug 8, 2008 10:48am EDT

By William Schomberg

LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Georgia's bid to re-take its rebel region of South Ossetia by force is a gamble by its leader that he can still count on Western support as he tries to thwart Russian efforts to regain influence over the ex-Soviet republic.

Analysts said the escalating conflict risked far-reaching consequences for a region that has become a test of the post-Cold War balance of power as well as a key energy transit point for Europe which needs oil and gas from Asia.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was welcomed by the West as a fresh, reform-minded leader when he led a revolution in 2003 and was elected the next year, making NATO membership his priority as he tried to escape the orbit of Moscow.

But James Nixey, an analyst at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, said Saakashvili had worried Western capitals with his tendency to overreact when provoked.

That was shown when he used force last year to quash anti-government protesters and again now in the conflict in South Ossetia, he said.

"He is in big danger of losing the cachet he built up for himself in being pro-Western and the restraint he has often shown in the face of provocation by Russia," Nixey said.

"If he is going to start a war, he is going to lose the support of a lot of friends in the West."

Long-standing tensions over South Ossetia exploded on Friday when Georgia tried to assert control over the region with tanks and rockets, and Russia sent forces to repel the assault.



NO GUARANTEE OF WESTERN CAVALRY

Analysts said Saakashvili's gamble in launching military action against the rebels could trigger a David-and-Goliath war between his country and the its powerful neighbour Russia, and it was far from certain that the West would come to his rescue.

"He has had plenty of warnings from the West that it won't pull any chestnuts out of the fire for him so I don't think he can count on the cavalry riding in," said Fraser Cameron of the EU-Russia centre in Brussels.

NATO and the European Union expressed serious concern about the fighting on Friday and urged all sides to halt the violence.

But Tomas Valasek, director of foreign policy at the Centre for European Reform, said Saakashvili had little choice but to take decisive action.

He said Russia's growing influence in South Ossetia and in another breakway region, Abkhazia, was steadily undermining Georgia's hopes of joining the NATO military alliance and putting itself firmly in the Western camp.

"At the end of the day the Georgians realise that time is not on their side and they could not let South Ossetia and Abkhazia become even more messy and Russian influence even stronger," he said.

Georgia's ambition of joining NATO was put on hold three months ago when alliance members were split at a summit between supporters of accession for Georgia and Ukraine and other countries which feared such a move would antagonise Russia.

Neither country was offered a membership plan but they were told instead they would join NATO in the future.

Analyst Nixey said Saakashvili could be jeopardising his country's chances of getting into the alliance: "Ultimately his NATO ambitions could go out of the window."

Strategic Forecasting Inc., based in the United States, said Georgia represented "the hottest flashpoint in Western-Russian relations" as it was the easternmost foothold of Western power.

"What is being decided here is whether bordering Russia and simultaneously being a U.S. ally is a suicidal combination. Whichever way this works out, the dynamics of the entire region are about to be turned on their head," it said in a note.

(Editing by Robert Hart)

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Most direct video of the war yet!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFEkDkoOi1U

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

America has no clue what she is getting into....



............BREAKING NEWS............

The game is OVER, Yanks!

3 hours ago: In this image, made from television , what Russian Channel 1 claims, a convoy of Russian tanks moving towards Tskhinvali in the South Ossetian enclave in Georgia on Friday, Aug. 8, 2008.

Russia's Defense Ministry says it has sent reinforcements to its peacekeepers deployed to South Ossetia to help end bloodshed. Georgian officials confirmed that the Russian convoy had crossed the border and was advancing toward Tskhinvali. Georgia launched a massive attack Friday to regain control over South Ossetia, using heavy artillery, aircraft and armor. South Ossetian officials said at least 15 people were killed Friday and an unspecified number were wounded.

Medvedev orders humanitarian aid for South Ossetia

19:58 | 08/ 08/ 2008


MOSCOW, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered that humanitarian aid be provided to people affected by the ongoing conflict between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Georgia launched a large-scale offensive against the province during the night, using tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry.

"The president has instructed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to provide humanitarian aid to people affected by the escalation of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict," the Kremlin press service said.

According to various reports, a large part of the republic's capital, Tskhinvali, has been destroyed. South Ossetian authorities are reporting numerous civilian casualties. There are also casualties among peacekeepers.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "A Russian humanitarian convoy has come under fire. Panic is growing among the local population, and the number of refugees is increasing. There are reports of ethnic cleansing in some villages... The situation is ripe for a humanitarian catastrophe."

A mobile hospital will leave Moscow for North Ossetia, a Russian republic bordering South Ossetia, at 22:00 (18:00 GMT), an emergencies ministry spokesperson said. An Il-76 aircraft will deliver medical equipment as well as doctors, psychologists and rescuers totaling 60 personnel.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080808/115905829.html

[RSNATION]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Russia forces on edge of South Ossetia capital: website


THE GEORGIANS ARE RETREATING

Fri Aug 8, 2008 1:03pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page|


MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russian armored vehicles have entered the northern edges of the capital of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, the separatists' press service reported on its website on Friday.

"Russian armored vehicles have entered the northern suburbs of Tskhinvali," the website cominf.org reported, adding that Georgian troops had started to retreat.

Moscow said its troops were responding to a Georgian assault to re-take the breakaway region, and Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili said the two countries were at war.

Russia would cut air links with Georgia from midnight on Friday, the Russian Transport Ministry said.

Saakashvili told BBC World television Russia had been massing troops on the northern border of Georgia for months.

" They have been calling it training exercises, but they have not been concealing the fact that they are training these troops for use inside Georgia," he said.

"The way the escalation went was we came first under extensive artillery barrage from the separatists ... but in the end I was told that Russian armored vehicles started to cross the Georgian border. And that was exactly the moment when I had to take this decision to fire back."

The United States on Friday asserted its support for Georgia's territorial integrity and urged an immediate ceasefire. NASTO and the European Union have joined calls for a halt to fighting.

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos also said the United States was sending an envoy to the region "to engage with the parties in the conflict."

U.S. President George W. Bush discussed the situation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Beijing, where world leaders were attending the opening of the Olympic Games, the White House said, giving no further information.

MORE THAN 1,000 DEAD

A South Ossetia minister said more than a thousand people had died in overnight shelling by Georgian forces of their capital Tskhinvali, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

"According to our information, as a result of the night-time shelling of Tskhinvali ... the number of fatalities is more than a thousand," Nationalities Minister Teimuraz Kasaev told the news agency by telephone.

A senior Georgian security official said Russian planes had bombed the Vaziani military outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The Interior Ministry said later three Georgian soldiers were killed.

Political analysts saw Georgia's bid to re-take its rebel region of South Ossetia by force as a gamble by its leader that he could still count on Western support in a clash with Russia.

"He is in big danger of losing the cachet he built up for himself in being pro-Western and the restraint he has often shown in the face of provocation by Russia," said James Nixey, analyst at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London,.

"If he is going to start a war, he is going to lose the support of a lot of friends in the West."

Saakashvili, who wants to take his small Caucasus nation into NATO, has made it a priority to win back control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel region on the Black Sea.

The issue has bedeviled Georgia's relations with Russia, angered by Tbilisi's moves towards the Western fold and its pursuit of NATO membership.

"ETHNIC CLEANSING"

As fighting raged, the roar of warplanes and the explosion of heavy shells resounded more than three km (two miles) from Tskhinvali. Many houses were ablaze.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Georgians of driving people from their homes. "We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives," he said in televised remarks from the ministry.

The crisis, the first to confront Russian President Dmitry Medvedev since he took office in May, has flared in a region emerging as a key energy transit route, and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.

It dented sentiment on Russia's benchmark equity index, which fell more than 4 percent to a 14-month low while the rouble lost more than 1 percent against a basket of currencies.

Medvedev vowed to defend Russian "compatriots" in South Ossetia, where most people have been given Russian passports.

"We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished," Interfax quoted him as saying.

The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.

[RSNATION]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Russia forces on edge of South Ossetia capital: website


THE GEORGIANS ARE RETREATING

Fri Aug 8, 2008 1:03pm EDT Email | Print | Share | Reprints | Single Page|


MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Russian armored vehicles have entered the northern edges of the capital of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, the separatists' press service reported on its website on Friday.

"Russian armored vehicles have entered the northern suburbs of Tskhinvali," the website cominf.org reported, adding that Georgian troops had started to retreat.

Moscow said its troops were responding to a Georgian assault to re-take the breakaway region, and Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili said the two countries were at war.

Russia would cut air links with Georgia from midnight on Friday, the Russian Transport Ministry said.

Saakashvili told BBC World television Russia had been massing troops on the northern border of Georgia for months.

" They have been calling it training exercises, but they have not been concealing the fact that they are training these troops for use inside Georgia," he said.

"The way the escalation went was we came first under extensive artillery barrage from the separatists ... but in the end I was told that Russian armored vehicles started to cross the Georgian border. And that was exactly the moment when I had to take this decision to fire back."

The United States on Friday asserted its support for Georgia's territorial integrity and urged an immediate ceasefire. NASTO and the European Union have joined calls for a halt to fighting.

State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos also said the United States was sending an envoy to the region "to engage with the parties in the conflict."

U.S. President George W. Bush discussed the situation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Beijing, where world leaders were attending the opening of the Olympic Games, the White House said, giving no further information.

MORE THAN 1,000 DEAD

A South Ossetia minister said more than a thousand people had died in overnight shelling by Georgian forces of their capital Tskhinvali, Russia's RIA news agency reported.

"According to our information, as a result of the night-time shelling of Tskhinvali ... the number of fatalities is more than a thousand," Nationalities Minister Teimuraz Kasaev told the news agency by telephone.

A senior Georgian security official said Russian planes had bombed the Vaziani military outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The Interior Ministry said later three Georgian soldiers were killed.

Political analysts saw Georgia's bid to re-take its rebel region of South Ossetia by force as a gamble by its leader that he could still count on Western support in a clash with Russia.

"He is in big danger of losing the cachet he built up for himself in being pro-Western and the restraint he has often shown in the face of provocation by Russia," said James Nixey, analyst at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London,.

"If he is going to start a war, he is going to lose the support of a lot of friends in the West."

Saakashvili, who wants to take his small Caucasus nation into NATO, has made it a priority to win back control of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel region on the Black Sea.

The issue has bedeviled Georgia's relations with Russia, angered by Tbilisi's moves towards the Western fold and its pursuit of NATO membership.

"ETHNIC CLEANSING"

As fighting raged, the roar of warplanes and the explosion of heavy shells resounded more than three km (two miles) from Tskhinvali. Many houses were ablaze.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Georgians of driving people from their homes. "We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives," he said in televised remarks from the ministry.

The crisis, the first to confront Russian President Dmitry Medvedev since he took office in May, has flared in a region emerging as a key energy transit route, and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.

It dented sentiment on Russia's benchmark equity index, which fell more than 4 percent to a 14-month low while the rouble lost more than 1 percent against a basket of currencies.

Medvedev vowed to defend Russian "compatriots" in South Ossetia, where most people have been given Russian passports.

"We will not allow their deaths to go unpunished," Interfax quoted him as saying.

The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20080808/115905108.html

What will be the outcome of the Georgian-Ossetian war?
19:31 | 08/ 08/ 2008

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti military commentator Ilya Kramnik) - The very real possibility of full-scale war between Georgia and South Ossetia raises questions about its possible outcome.

At present, the Georgian armed forces have more than 30,000 men, including 20,000 ground forces. They are equipped with more than 200 tanks, including 40 T-55s and 165 T-72s, which are currently being upgraded. Apart from tanks, the ground forces have 200 combat armored vehicles, including about 180 infantry combat vehicles and armored personnel carriers (APCs). The ground troops can receive artillery support from 120 artillery pieces of 122 mm-152 mm caliber, 40 multiple-launch rocket systems, and 180 mortars.

The Georgian Air Force is equipped with five Su-25 (Frogfoot) close support aircraft, 15 L-29 and L-39 combat training aircraft, which can be used as light assault planes, and 30 helicopters, including eight MI-24 attack helicopters.

Available estimates put the South Ossetian forces at a mere 2,500 officers and men, or 16,000, including reservists. They are armed with 15 T-55 and T-72 tanks, 24 Gvozdika and Akatsiya self-propelled artillery units, 12 D-30 towed howitzers, six multiple-launch rocket systems, four 100-mm Rapir anti-tank weapons, and more than 30 mortars. In addition, the South Ossetian army has 22 infantry combat vehicles, 24 APCs, and six combat patrol vehicles.

The infantry is equipped with small arms of Soviet or Russian make, and has several dozen xxxot and Konkurs anti-tank rocket systems. Its air force consists of four MI-8 multi-purpose transport helicopters. South Ossetia can defend itself against air attacks with four to six Osa, three Tunguska, three Shilka, and six Strela-10 air defense rocket systems. It also has 12 23-mm ZU-23/2 twin antiaircraft guns (some of which are mounted on GAZ-66 trucks), and up to 100 Igla and Strela man-portable air-defense missiles.

A forecast of the outcome of this war (as well as a potential conflict with Abkhazia) cannot be based on mathematics alone. In the mountains, even a very small unit can resist a numerically much stronger enemy. In this case, the outcome of the conflict will primarily depend on the training of forces and the influence of third parties.

The training of the Georgian army is not likely to have changed much in the last two months and, with the exception of a few units, it is not rated too high. Like the Abkhazian armed forces, South Ossetian armies are better trained and motivated. Moreover, the Abkhazian leader has already expressed readiness to support South Ossetia in a war against Georgia.

Georgia can win only if it is backed by the United States and its other allies. And even with such support, its victory will mean heavy losses, and entail lengthy guerilla warfare.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

[North Pole]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Russia Should Push For UN Sanctions Against US for supporting the terrorist state of Georgia.


Russian troops near S.Ossetia capital, 10 peacekeepers killed
18:34 | 08/ 08/ 2008

VLADIKAVKAZ, August 8 (RIA Novosti) - Russian troops are approaching the capital of breakaway South Ossetia to help peacekeepers amid a spiraling conflict with Georgia, which tried to regain control of the region Friday, a top military spokesman said.

Colonel Igor Konashenkov, an aide to the Russian Ground Forces commander, said around 10 Russian peacekeepers have been killed and 30 wounded in the province since Georgia launched a major offensive overnight using tanks, combat aircraft, heavy artillery and infantry.
"Units of the 58th Army have set off to help Russian peacekeepers, they are approaching Tskhinvali," Konashenkov said.

He said Georgian tanks are firing at the Russian peacekeeping headquarters.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080808/115903809.html

Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone. Evacuation



Georgian forces have been shelling and firing on the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and local villages, with civilians killed and wounded. Women and children are being evacuated from the conflict zone to nearby Russian regions.
A total of 1,264 people, including 852 children, have arrived in North Ossetia from the conflict zone of South Ossetia. Another 400 children will be accepted by the Don Cossack Host in Russia’s Rostov Region and the North Caucasus Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, each taking 200.

Source: http://en.rian.ru/photolents/20080808/115888714.html


South Ossetian bloodshed claims hundreds of lives

More than 1,400 people have been killed during Georgia`s attacks on the capital of South Ossetia, according to the region`s authorities. The breakaway republic is calling on the world community to recognise it as an independent state. Meanwhile, Moscow says Russian artillery and tanks have now suppressed the Georgian firing positions around Tskhinvali.

http://russiatoday.com/news/news/28668

VIDEO -- http://russiatoday.com/news/news/28668/video





4 months ago:
US President George W. Bush (R) shakes hands with Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili during the NATO Summit meeting on Afghanistan at the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest on April 3, 2008.

[RSNATION]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

I've been reading the news every so often today and what I can surmise is the following:

1. The Georgians are retreating from their positions after taking heavy casualities inside Tskhivali, not just soldiers but tanks and apc's.
2. Russian troops are moping up in Tskhinvali and the outskirts.
3. The Russians are bombing towns and villages inside Georgia and close to Ossetia very hard. The Georgian forward bases/ staging points inside Georgia proper are being shelled by the Russians. There are several dead and wounded Georgian troops and Georgian civilians are fleeing en masse.
4. Russia has quickly and easily taken the advantage of air superiority.
5. Tskhivali is mostly destroyed and many Ossetians have been killed and wounded; the Russians claim 1,000 so far.

...so much for US training and equipment.
Looks like Saakashvili has bitten off more than he could chew.

[Azad]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

"Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations, withdraw all forces from the sovereign territory of Georgia," McCain told reporters in Iowa. "The U.S should immediately convene an emergency session of the U.N. security council to call on Russia to reverse course."

[RSNATION]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

"Russia should immediately and unconditionally cease its military operations, withdraw all forces from the sovereign territory of Georgia," McCain told reporters in Iowa. "The U.S should immediately convene an emergency session of the U.N. security council to call on Russia to reverse course."

A day late and dollar short McCain Not only that, Russia is a member of the Security Council and can veto any UN proposal.