| Russia bombs Georgian military targets |
Published By: Mathew White
On Monday 11 August 2008 |
Russian planes have bombed more military targets in South Ossetia as global condemnation of the conflict with Georgia grows.
The airstrikes continued despite pleas from the international community urging the two countries to agree to an "immediate" ceasefire amid Russian reports that more than 2,000 people have been killed and thousands are homeless.
The crisis in the Caucasus has triggered alarm in the West. Georgia is an important energy transit route, with a key pipeline carrying oil west from the Caspian to European markets.
On Saturday, Russian planes bombed a military airfield and Tbilisi said Russian air attacks had badly damaged its Black sea port of Poti, an important oil shipment facility
In the latest attacks, Russian planes bombed a Georgian military base and radar installation while Moscow issued an ultimatum to over 1,500 Georgian forces stationed in the Zugdidi district near Abkhazia, a second separatist area west of South Ossetia, to disarm or face attack. Georgia swiftly rejected the demand.
Meanwhile, Russian troops and armour have pushed into two separatist regions of Georgia as Georgian forces shelled Tskhinvali, the Russian-held capital of South Ossetia.
US President George W Bush condemned Moscow's "disproportionate response" to the crisis. A big supporter of Georgia's pro-Western leader Mikheil Saakashvili, Mr Bush said he had spoken firmly to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin about the situation.
He said: "I was very firm with Vladimir Putin. I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia. We strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia."
Nato Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has accused Russia of using excessive force and violating Georgian territory. His spokeswoman Carmen Romero said: ""He is seriously concerned about the disproportionate use of force by the Russians and the lack of respect for the territorial integrity of Georgia.
"The military operations that we saw on Saturday and since then, including air and missile attacks, have no relation to and go well beyond the CIS peacekeeping operation," referring to the Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States grouping former Soviet republics.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned Moscow for bombing targets "well beyond" South Ossetia and said there is widespread concern about the escalating violence while French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, in Georgia on a peace mission, has also called for the fighting to cease.
Meanwhile, the UK's Europe Minister, Jim Murphy, said Russia's military action is "deplorable".
He said: "The fact that Russia is now going even beyond Abkhazia and South Ossetia, bombing sites near to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the fact that Russia has mobilised at least part of the Black Sea fleet off the coast of Georgia is entirely deplorable Russian military behaviour.
"There cannot be a military solution to this, it is absolutely clear."
Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of Russia's general staff, told reporters in Moscow at a daily briefing that a total of four Russian aircraft have been lost in the conflict.
He also said his troops would not extend their action beyond South Ossetia.
"We are not crossing the (de facto) border, that's our key principle. Russian peacekeeping troops have received no orders to invade Georgian territory," he said.
The simmering conflict between Russia and its small, former Soviet neighbour erupted on Thursday when Georgia sent forces into South Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s.
