Russia and Georgia on brink of war

GEORGIAN AND Russian troops were fighting for control of the separatist region of South Ossetia last night, after a day of fierce clashes that may have left more than 1,000 people dead. Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers rolled through a tunnel beneath the Caucasus mountains and into South Ossetia early yesterday, at about the time that Georgian forces were pouring into the province to reassert Tbilisi's control after 16 years of de facto independence.

Russia claimed to be defending its peacekeepers in the region and the many South Ossetians to whom it has given citizenship, while Tbilisi accused it of rampant aggression intended to prevent Georgia from joining the Nato military alliance.

A battle was raging for control of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, as the United States, the European Union and the United Nations appealed for a ceasefire.

"We came first under extensive artillery barrage from the separatists . . . but in the end I was told that Russian armoured vehicles started to cross the Georgian border. And that was exactly the moment when I had to take this decision to fire back," said Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.

He said Georgia was "fighting to secure its borders" against "full-blown military aggression" involving thousands of Russian troops and aerial bombing around the country, which had killed an unknown number of civilians.

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin said "war started today in South Ossetia" when Tbilisi's forces fired on Russian peacekeepers.

His successor in the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev, said: "I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect the lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located. We won't allow the death of our compatriots to go unpunished."

Last night, Georgian and South Ossetian officials were claiming to control most of Tskhinvali, capital of a poor region that is home to about 40,000 people. Georgia also announced it was bringing home 1,000 soldiers from Iraq.

"Slightly more than 1,400 people have died," said Eduard Kokoity, president of a province that broke from Tbilisi after a 1991-1992 war.