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http://www.local12.com/content/breaking_news/story.aspx?content_id=a2e6f6c8-11f3-4fb6-9f59-c9f5c3c6d630WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is calling for an immediate cease-fire in a conflict between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia.
State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters Friday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making calls to top officials urging all parties to remain calm. He did not identify the officials.
He says a U.S. envoy is traveling to the region Friday in hopes of bringing an end to hostilities. Gallegos did not name the envoy, who will meet with U.S. allies and others.
He says the U.S. supports Georgia's territorial integrity. Georgia launched a major military offensive Friday to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, prompting Moscow to send tanks into the region in a furious response that threatens to engulf Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, and Russia in all-out war.
Hundreds were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won defacto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.
"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. "It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."
The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were on their way to Beijing. The timing suggests Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia - a key to his hold on power.
Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor.
"Most decision makers have gone for the holidays," he said in an interview with CNN. "Brilliant moment to attack a small country."
South Ossetian separatist leader Eduard Kokoity claimed hundreds of civilians had been killed. Ten Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded when their barracks were hit in Georgian shelling, said Russian Ground Forces spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov.
Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.
Georgia's president says the country is calling home its troops from Iraq amid heavy fighting in the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Georgia has 2,000 troops serving with the coalition forces in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor after the United States and Britain. But Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told CNN television Friday the troops would return urgently to Georgia after fighting erupted in South Ossetia. "One brigade of Georgian forces is in Iraq and we are calling it home tomorrow," Saakashvili said in the interview.
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. The country has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership - a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
Speaking earlier on Georgian television, Saakashvili accused Russia of sending aircraft to bomb Georgian territory, which Russia denied. Russia's Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements for its peacekeepers, and Russian state television and Georgian officials reported a convoy of tanks had crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.
Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said government troops were now in full control of the city. "We are facing Russian aggression," said Georgia's Security Council chief Kakha Lomaya. "They have sent in their troops and weapons and they are bombing our towns."
Putin has warned that the Georgian attack will draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship. Chairing a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also vowed that Moscow will protect Russian citizens. "In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located," Medvedev said, according to Russian news reports. "We won't allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished."
An AP reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia - supporting the Russian TV reports of an incursion. Some villagers were fleeing into Russia. "I saw them (the Georgians) shelling my village," said Maria, who gave only her first name. She said she and other villagers spent the night in a field and then fled toward the Russian border as the fighting escalated.
Yakobashvili said Georgian forces have shot down four Russian combat planes over Georgian territory. He gave no details. Russia's Defense Ministry denied an earlier Georgia report about one Russian plane downed and has had no immediate comment on the latest claim.
Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt. More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were at the base last month to teach combat skills to Georgian troops.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
