Adepoju Paul OlusegunFighting with Russia spreads to cities across Georgia
August 8th 2008 23:52
Battle time
Bombs rocked Tbilisi early Saturday morning as the fight between Georgia and Russia over a breakaway region intensified and moved into the Georgian capital.
Government buildings, including the Parliament, were evacuated when the bombs fell.
A declaration of martial law was likely within hours, Georgia National Security Council secretary Alexander Lomaia said.
Heavy casualties have reported on both sides since Russian forces moved Friday into South Ossetia, a pro-Russian autonomous region of Georgia.
Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations, Irakali Alasania, said during a special session of the Security Council that the foreign minister had informed him of bombs falling on the Black Sea port of Poti and the Viziani airfield near Tbilisi early Saturday.
Georgian television reported that the port had been destroyed.
Georgia, a former Soviet state, sent troops into South Ossetia on Thursday, aiming to crack down on the separatists, who want independence or unification with North Ossetia, which is in Russia. Russia responded Friday, sending troops into the Georgian province where it had peacekeepers stationed.
"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," Lyudmila Ostayeva, a resident of the South Ossetia capital, Tskhinvali, told The Associated Press on Friday.
"It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged," she said after fleeing to a village near the Russian border, AP reported.
"They are killing civilians, women and children, with heavy artillery and rockets," Sarmat Laliyev, 28, told AP.
One U.S. State Department official called the conflict a "very dangerous situation" and said diplomatic moves are afoot around the globe to stop it.
Georgia -- on the Black Sea coast between Russia and Turkey -- appealed for diplomatic intervention.
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