Russia launches full scale military operations against Georgia and its civilian population
On Friday, August 8th, Russian troops not only entered South Ossetia to back up separatists' regime (some 150 Russian tanks and armored vehicles crossed the border into the Georgian territory), but started to bomb towns and villages all over Georgia. Airports, railway stations, seaports, military basis have been bombed since Friday. Towns of Senaki, Poti, Gori, Marneuli have been under Russian air attack as well. Gori (in Eastern Georgia) and Senaki (in Western Georgia) suffered the most – lots of casualties and deaths among civilians are reported.
From Gori, Imedi Radio's correspondent K. Liklikadze has reported on Saturday that Russians jets bomb various districts of the city. A residential block of houses was destroyed by Russian airplane bombing and, according to CNN reports, some 60 civilians were killed and more were wounded.
People flee from their homes in Gori and the Tskhinvali region and try to find shelter in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, which might also become a next target for the Russian air force.
On Saturday, Georgia declared a state of war as Russia sent more troops and hundreds of tanks into the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
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| An injured Georgian woman in the town of Gori, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 9, 2008. |
According to Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, in a radio interview to "Imedi", said that on August 9th, Georgia shot down four Russian military airplanes (air jets/bombardiers), raising the number of Russian airplanes downed in two days to ten (August 8th-9th). No independent source has confirmed this information.
Lomaia said that Russian airplanes twice came very near to the regular civilian airplanes creating a serious safety situation for civilian planes. So far, all civilian flights to Europe and other directions, except to Russia, are not cancelled.
Russians launched an information war and the Georgian government ordered to switch off Russian channels in Georgia. Lomaia appealed to citizens not to believe the Russian propaganda.
According to CNN, some two thousands people are believed to be killed in the clashes and bombings in South Ossetia and elsewhere in Georgia.
U.S. President George W. Bush, in Beijing, called Russia and Georgia to immediately end the fighting.
South Ossetia has been trying, with Russia’s military, economic and political support, to gain independence since breaking away in a civil war in the 1992-1993. Georgia's president Mikhail Saakashvili has pledged to bring South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region also supported by Russia, under full Georgian control. Russia has troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia labeling them “peacekeeping missions”, which, in fact, are the military shield for the separatists.
Russia’s strategic political goal is to prevent Georgia from becoming a NATO member and NATO from approving a membership action plan (MAP) for Georgia at the alliance’s December 2008 or April 2009 meetings. Russia seeks to demonstrate that Georgia cannot be a viable member of NATO with unsolved conflict with the country. Similar strategy Russia holds for Moldova, which has a similar separatist conflict with its breakaway region of Transnistria that borders Ukraine.
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| A Russian fighter jet drops munitions on the Georgian town of Gori, on Friday, Aug. 8, 2008 |
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| Russian military vehicles on their way to Georgia's South Ossetia. |
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A blazing apartment after a bombardment in the town of Gori, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 9, 2008.
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| A destroyed building in the town of Gori, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 9, 2008. |
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| A Georgian town after Russian fighter jets bombing, August 9, 2008. |
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An injured Georgian woman in the town of Gori, 80 km (50 miles) from Tbilisi, August 9, 2008.
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