Russian President Orders End to Military Operations Against Georgia

Troops, Rubble and Grief in Georgia August 12, 2008 NSI News Source Info Russian troops arrived in the Khurcha settlement in the breakaway region of Abkhazia in western Georgia. The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, was pushed to the ground by bodyguards when a jet flew overhead during his tour of the Georgian city of Gori. Mr. Saakashvili said Georgian and Russian troops had fought fierce battles overnight as Russian tanks advanced toward Gori before being driven back, with heavy casualties on both sides. A South Ossetian woman wept as she embraced a Russian soldier in Tskhinvali. Russia's ambassador to NATO asked Monday to meet the alliance's top officials over the crisis in Georgia and rejected any criticism of his country's actions, drawing parallels with NATO's bombing raids in Serbia in 1999. Georgian soldiers prayed with an Orthodox priest. Air attacks by Russian forces caused numerous casualties among the civilian population in Gori.