Georgia and South Ossetia Update 15

Update as of 1100 Eastern Time / 1900 Tbilisi Time:

Sergey Reports from Russian News Services:

Georgia opened artilery fire again despite of Saakashvilli signing some papers. Russian forces advance from the side of Abkhazia to Georgian city Senaky 40 kb from Abkhazia/Georgia borders. Russian commandment said before they would not advance to Georgia but now they say to run an operation to stop Georgian artilery fire and prevent Georgian reinforcements regrouping against Osetia.

http://echo.msk.ru/news/533284-echo.html
http://interfax.ru/politics/news.asp?id=26572

Georgian Su-25 was hit near Tskhinvaly after fourth attack on 58 army, TV shows video

From the NY Times:

President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia said its forces had “completed a significant part of the operations to oblige Georgia, the Georgian authorities, to restore peace to South Ossetia,” the pro-Russian enclave in eastern Georgia, according to a transcript of his remarks with Anatoly Serdyukov, the defense minister, on the Kremlin Web site.

Separately, Russia said it was seeking an emergency meeting with NATO to discuss the Georgian crisis.

But the Georgian Defense Ministry said Russian armored vehicles had overrun a military base in the town of Senaki, west of Abkhazia, suggesting that Russian troops had already begun to move west from the enclave into Georgia, The Associated Press reported.

The Russian ultimatum, issued by Maj. Gen. Sergei Chaban, commander of Russian forces in Abkhazia, called for Georgian troops to disarm in the Zugdidi District, along the border between Abkhazia and Georgia.

Russia has poured extra forces into the western enclave where it now has at least 9,000 troops and 350 armored vehicles. Giga Bokeria, a Georgian official close to the president, said the ultimatum raised alarms that Russian troops would now push into Georgian territory in the west of the country. Many Georgian troops have been tied up in fighting farther east near South Ossetia.

A pivotal question in the conflict, which has involved heavy fighting since late last week, is whether Russia — which has poured troops into both Abkhazia and South Ossetia — will push beyond these regions and further into Georgia.

On Sunday, a reporter for The New York Times saw an armored personnel carrier emblazoned with the letters MT, the Russian abbreviation for peacekeepers, on the street in Senaki, which is 25 miles from the boundary line with Abkhazia. However, there was no immediate sign of fighting.

God Bless America

Bryan

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/world/europe/12georgia.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin Sphere: Related Content