Georgia accuses Russia after jets bomb South Ossetia border area

Helen Womack
London Guardian
Friday, Aug 8, 2008

Georgia today said three Russian jets had entered its airspace and dropped bombs at two locations just south of a rebel enclave in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The announcement came as Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who is in China to attend the opening of the Olympic games, said that "aggressive" action by Georgia would incur a "response" from Russia.

A Georgian interior ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili, said two Russian military planes had attacked a police station near the town of Kareli, and a third dropped a bomb near the border town of Gori. Several civilians had been wounded in Kareli, he said.

The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who has ordered the mobilisation of reservists, was quoted by Reuters as saying "the greater part" of South Ossetia had been liberated.

Russia's Interfax news agency said Georgian troops had entered the separatist South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, a claim denied by Georgia.

Interfax quoted its correspondent on the ground as saying heavy fighting was raging in the south of the town, but Utiashvili said the information was "not correct".

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