Russia Sends Tanks Into Georgia

Russia Sends Tanks Into Georgia (NSI News Service Info) MOSCOW 8 August, 2008: Russian troops rolled into the South Caucasus republic of Georgia on August, 8 after the Georgian military attempted to re-claim the separatist Moscow-leaning province of Southern Ossetia. There were conflicting reports by the side of the conflicts at the end of the first day of the sharp escalation in a conflict that dates to the early 1990s. Georgia's president and a staunch ally of the United States in the region, Mikheil Saakashvili, said in a public address that most territory of the maverick province is under the control of the Georgian military. About 30 Georgian citizens, mostly troops, were killed in fighting, he said, according to the Russian Interfax news agency. In the meantime, South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity claimed that the Russian troops along with the South Ossetian militia were dealing with the final pockets of the Georgian military's resistance at the outskirts of the republican capital Tskhinvali. Kokoity said in televised remarks on Russia's Channel One that 1,400 civilians died in the Aug. 8 fighting. The government of South Ossetia also called upon the world to recognize it as an independent state. Igor Konashenkov, an aide to the Commander of the Russian Land Force, said that more than 10 Russian peacekeepers died in the fighting. Two Russian battalions reinforced by tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled into the South Ossetia several hours after the Georgian troops began intense shelling of Tskhinvali from the surrounding heights, Channel One said. Georgian Foreign Ministry claimed that Russian military aircrafts attacked the Marneuli air base and destroyed several Georgian military airplanes. Also, the ministry said that Russian military destroyed the Bolnisi airport by missile attack. Georgian media reported August, 8 that Russian aircraft bombed the Georgian town of Gori located near the border with South Ossetia. Georgia is aspiring to become a NATO member, a move Moscow fiercely opposes. Shortly after the U.S.-educated Saakashvili was elected Georgian president in 2003, he set as his major policy goals NATO membership and returning Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Tbilisi's rule. U.S. instructors have trained Georgian military forces since 2002, at the invitation of the country's political leadership.