EU report to blame start of Georgia conflict on Georgia?

This is from the Georgia Times. The paper sounds more pro-Russian than Georgian! It seemed to me at the time that it was clearly Georgia that started the fracas underestimating the Russian reaction and ultimately leading to disaster for Georgia. So far very few countries have recognised South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Nicaragua being one. Appparently the US is helping to rebuild the Georgian Army and there are reports that by 2015 there may be US military bases in Georgia.


Who dreads conclusions of the “mission for truth” in Georgia?
Before Heidi Tagliavini's commission report on the reasons of the conflict in Caucasus last August is made public Hansjörg Haber, head of the European Union Monitoring Mission (see photo) made a very serious statement remarking that the mission has to reckon with Russia's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"I believe we'll have to live with this state of things as Russian presence is a vital factor there", - Haber told journalists in Brussels. According to him in this situation the mission is tasked to work out confidence building mechanisms between the conflicting parties and make the life of civilians easier.
Haber's statement is indirect acknowledgement of the conclusions made by the EU commission that has already been nicknamed "the mission for truth".
EU military observers reinforced their presence in Georgian districts adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to Haber it was necessary in view of the coming publication of the report on the origins of last year's war in Caucasus. Heidi Tagliavini, head of the independent expert commission must promulgate the conclusions next week.
"We will reinforce our patrols ahead of the publication of the report and maintain maximum visibility", - Haber said at a briefing in Brussels. - These are ordinary prophylactic measures in view of the coming promulgation of the investigation results".
Georgia reasonably fears that the report publication will lead to a new turn of instability in the country. The content of the report is kept secret so far. Nonetheless, main conclusions of the investigation have already leaked through to the European media. On Monday Der Spiegel magazine (Germany) with reference to the EU diplomats wrote that the report authors put most of the blame for the start of hostilities in South Ossetia on August 8 2008 on the Georgian leadership and personally on Mikheil Saakashvili - it was he who sanctioned the offensive of the Georgian troops on Tskhinval. But Russia is not innocent either: it is held responsible for "disproportionate reaction" while South Ossetian military units are held liable for shooting onto Georgian villages within the conflict area. The commission came to these conclusions as early as in August - at least then a EU official that took part in the report preparation revealed the document's main conclusions to above mentioned Spiegel.
Georgian authorities were nervous about the Spiegel article. Chairman of parliamentary committee on restoration of Georgia's territorial integrity Shota Malashkhia stated he didn't trust Spiegel's report on Tbilisi's guilt for last year's conflict.

Georgia admits to using cluster bombs in South Ossetia

Group: Georgia admits to dropping cluster bombs
Human Rights Watch says Georgia admits to dropping cluster bombs in S. Ossetia
StaffAP News
Sep 01, 2008 06:23 EST
A prominent human rights group says Georgia has admitted dropping cluster bombs in its military offensive to assert control over the restive province of South Ossetia.







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This is from wiredispatch.
These bombs should be banned but great powers such as the U.S. and Russia are opposed to a ban. The article does not say where the bombs were made but it sounds as if they were made in Israel or perhaps supplied by Israel since Israel used them in its war in Lebanon. Israel has been helping train the Georgian army and seems to have some influence with the government. As the article notes Russia also may have used the bombs in Georgia although Russia in this case denies doing so.



Human Rights Watch says it has received an official letter from Georgia's Defense Ministry that acknowledges use of the M85 cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with Russia.
The M85 is the same weapon that was used extensively by Israel in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
HRW arms division researcher Bonnie Docherty told reporters in Geneva on Monday that Russia undoubtedly used cluster munition in several places during the conflict. However, Russia has denied using the weapon.
Source: AP News

Russia 'not pulling out troops."

This is from Aljazeera.
The headline is actually from Reuters and seems to come from Georgian commentators. However, other articles seem to support the basic thrust of the article if not all the details. Russia seems to be taking its own sweet time to withdraw. Perhaps this is meant to show that Russia is not about to jump when the West says to jump. This is not surprising since the U.S. in particular has continued to go ahead with its own projects such as joint military exercises with Georgia and a missile defence system without paying any attention to Russia's complaints.
This article is perhaps a bit of a surprise coming from Aljazeera which does not usually support western policy positions.

Russia 'not pulling out troops'
Russia said it was leaving Gori but its forces were instead fortifying positions [Reuters]
Georgia has said there are still no signs of Russia withdrawing its troops from deep inside the country as Nato foreign ministers meet in Brussels to work out a response to Moscow's military action.Shota Utiashvilli, the spokesman of Georgia's interior ministry, said on Tuesday there had been no significant Russian troop movements overnight.
He said Russian troops remained entrenched in previous positions, including in and around the flashpoint city of Gori."There is still no sign of a withdrawal, nothing at all," Utiashvili said.
Jonah Hull, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tbilisi, said: "One suspects that there is unfinished business here for the Russians.
"One of their main motivations has been to see the back of Saakashvili [Georgia's president], Putin's long-time nemesis.
"It [the delay in retreating] is aimed at intimidating him and destabilising the country," Hull said.
On Monday Russia announced the start of its withdrawal from Georgia, but Tbilisi accused Moscow of stalling and seeking to spread further into the country.Access prevented
Russian soldiers were still preventing access into Gori, just 60km west of Tbilisi.
Four tanks were also present at the checkpoint, an AFP correspondent reported. "I really do not know how long we will be staying here," said one of the soldiers, who declined to give his name.
The Russian soldiers were bearing the insignia of "peacekeepers" on their uniforms. Tanks were also in evidence on the road to Gori from Igoeti, 30km west of Tbilisi.
Map



Key locations in the conflict
Maxime Verhagen, the Netherland's foreign minister, said ahead of the talks in Brussels that there was disproportionate use of violence by Russia.
"We should send a signal that that the agreement between Russia and Georgia should be fulfilled and the Russian troops should withdraw. But I am also convinced we should have the possibility for dialogue," he told Al Jazeera.Hannah Belcher, reporting for Al Jazeera from Georgia, said orders to pull out don't appear to have reached the Russian military patrolling the strategic east-west highyway near the city of Gori.
"Their [troops] only movement has been towards the Georgian capital Tbilisi," she said."The Russians are expected to be sent a strong message from Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels. Nato is set to back Georgia's territorial integrity and condemn Russia's military presence."She said Moscow seems determined to finish the operation on its town time table, and not one imposed by outsiders.Jonah Hull, also reporting for Al Jazeera from Tbilisi, said Russia was sending "all sorts of mixed signals" and in the same breath saying that the pull out is underway.
He said Al Jazeera's correspondents had seen with their own eyes that Russia is "simply making no preparations to withdraw at all".The United States has warned Russia to stop what it calls Moscow's "dangerous game" of using its military to assert its power.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is expected to push Nato allies to send a strong message to Russia that it must stick to its ceasefire commitment with Georgia or risk diplomatic fallout.
At Washington's request, the 26 foreign ministers of Nato member countries are meeting to reaffirm their solidarity with Georgia.
"Russia will pay a price," Rice said on Monday before flying to Brussels for the talks.
"We are going to send the message that we are not going to allow Russia to draw a new line at those states that are not yet integrated into the transatlantic structures like Georgia and Ukraine. We are determined to deny them their strategic objective."
Consolidating positions
Russia promised to start withdrawing forces on Monday back to positions in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia province in line with a peace deal brokered last week by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
And the deputy chief of staff of Russia's army said on Monday that the withdrawal had begun.
Russian forces are concentrated in the town Gori and were also roaming the western town of Senaki, where they have occupied a Georgian military base.
Witnesses also reported Russian patrols in the port city of Poti, which has been repeatedly raided and there were also Russian forces in and around the town of Zugdidi, near the border with Abkhazia.
Rice has accused Moscow of using "disproportionate force" against its neighbour, whose hopes of joining Nato have angered Russia.
The US secretary of state is scheduled to travel to Warsaw later on Tuesday where she is to sign a deal on installing a missile defence shield pact with Poland - a move certain to further increase tensions with Russia.
US diplomats denied Russian claims that Washington wants to break up the Nato-Russian Council which was set up in 2002 to improve relations between the former Cold War foes.
Alliance unity
But a senior US official said on Monday that the alliance would have to rethink a range of planned activities - from a meeting with Russia's defence minister foreseen in October, to regular military consultations in areas such as counterterrorism, managing air space or rescue at sea.
Rice is expected to push Nato to affirm its commitment to Georgia [AFP]Some Nato officials said that approach was very likely to win support at Tuesday's emergency meeting, despite wariness among some European allies about further damaging relations with Moscow.
Despite one senior US official's assurance that "you'll see a Nato more united than you might expect", some diplomatic sources said the subject of Russia's role in Georgia had split Nato members.
Britain, Canada, the US and most Eastern European member states are in one camp seeking a tough stance on Russia's actions, the sources said.
But most of Western Europe, led by France and Germany and backed by Hungary and Slovenia among others, were more cautious of further hurting ties with Moscow.
Russian warning
Russia's ambassador to Nato warned that an "anti-Russian propaganda campaign" could jeopardise "the quality of co-operation" and that ties between Moscow and the alliance would suffer if the Nato foreign ministers failed to reach a "responsible decision".
"We hope that decisions by Nato will be balanced and that responsible forces in the West will give up the total cynicism that has been so evident [which] is pushing us back to the Cold War era,'' Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Monday.
"We don't want to hear that [Mikheil] Saakashvili is a saint," he added, comparing the Georgian president's actions in the breakaway province of South Ossetia to the worst excesses of Hitler and Stalin.
The Nato meeting will also discuss support for a planned international monitoring mission in the region and a package of support to help Georgia rebuild infrastructure damaged in the conflict with Russia.
The ministers are also expected to restate Nato's firm opposition to the separatist ambitions of Georgia's pro-Russian breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Saakashvili has accused Nato leaders of encouraging Russia's move into Georgian territory by postponing a decision in April to put Georgia and Ukraine on a fast track to Nato membership.
The alliance had held off because Germany and France were wary of Russian opposition to the move, since Russia is Europe's main energy supplier.
But on a visit on Sunday to Tbilisi, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, repeated Western promises that Georgia will eventually join Nato.
Source:
Al Jazeera and agencies

Moscow Times on the Georgia situation

This is from the Moscow Times.
This article is noteworthy in that it contains quite a few reports from the Georgian side rather than toeing a Kremlin line and leaving out anything critical of Russia. In fact the article confirms that Russia was still in Georgia andhad a checkpoint two kilometres east of Gori a city inside Georgia proper. The casualty reports sound quite low compared to what other sources have claimed.


Charges Fly as Georgia, Russia Mourn14 August 2008By Nabi Abdullaev, Nikolaus von Twickel / Staff WritersTBILISI-SUKHUMI HIGHWAY, Georgia -- Georgia and Russia angrily accused each other of breaching a truce as they mourned for their dead Wednesday.Georgia said Russia had sent dozens of tanks into the town of Gori, inside Georgia proper near the border with South Ossetia. A convoy of journalists and diplomats heading to Gori from Tbilisi was stopped at a checkpoint manned by Russian officers two kilometers east of Gori's city limits on the Tbilisi-Sukhumi Highway at about 8 p.m. Moscow time.A Moscow Times reporter saw about 50 trucks with Russian soldiers moving toward Gori from the east, the direction of Tbilisi. An armored personnel carrier led the Russian military convoy.A senior adviser to Saakashvili, Gotcha Javakhishvili, who accompanied the convoy, said the Russian military was using Gori as a staging ground for looting raids on villages in Georgia proper."This is a blatant and very serious breach of the treaty agreed between Moscow and Tbilisi," he said.Several Russian armored personnel carriers were seen maneuvering outside Gori, but no tanks could be seen at sunset.Also in the convoy were French philosopher Bernard Levi, European Parliament lawmaker Marie Isler Beguin of France, Estonian Ambassador Tomas Luk and Georgian Security Council chief Alexander Lomaya.A Russian officer at the checkpoint refused to identify himself, but he and his peers looked relaxed.Later, he allowed a car carrying the politicians to travel on to Gori. Reporters were waiting late Wednesday night for word of what they had seen.In Moscow, the Defense Ministry denied sending tanks to Gori or using troops to support armed units of South Ossetians there. The ministry said Russian forces had shot down two Georgian drones over South Ossetia that flew there in violation of the cease-fire agreement Wednesday.Wednesday was declared a day of national mourning in both countries after six days of fighting that followed Georgia's attempt to reclaim its separatist province of South Ossetia.Russian and South Ossetian officials have said 1,600 civilians died in the fighting there, which started Friday and continued Tuesday, when President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military actions by Russian troops who had moved into Georgia.Medvedev, in his decree on national mourning, described the events in South Ossetia as a "humanitarian catastrophe" and the actions of the Georgian military there "genocide."The deputy head of the armed forces' General Staff, Anatoly Nogovitsyn, told reporters that the military had lost 74 men, with another 171 wounded and 19 missing.Georgia's Health Ministry said 175 people were killed, but this figure did not include casualties among Georgians living in South Ossetia.Medvedev ordered national flags lowered to half-mast and national television channels to refrain from broadcasting entertainment shows Wednesday.In Tbilisi, black bands were attached to national flags hanging on the official buildings.Late Tuesday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accepted a six-point peace plan agreed upon by Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who stepped in to mediate the conflict. France holds the rotating presidency in the European Union.Saakashvili demanded that the peace plan be modified to exclude a provision to begin discussions on the future status of South Ossetia and another separatist Georgian republic, Abkhazia. Moscow accepted the changes in the text, with the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying, "In essence, it doesn't change anything."The plan effectively restores the status quo ante.Emerging from talks with Saakashvili in the Georgian president's residence early Wednesday, Sarkozy told reporters, "I found interlocutors in Moscow and Tbilisi who are prepared to make a peace effort."Peter Semneby, the Caucasus envoy for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said the document agreed upon by Moscow and Tbilisi "will eventually lead to a signed contract which in turn could yield a United Nations Security Council resolution."After the talks with Sarkozy, Saakashvili said the Russian military had committed atrocities in South Ossetia and Georgia proper. Speaking in stumbling French to reporters, he accused Moscow of "carpet bombings" in South Ossetia."The situation is extreme and worse than in 1992 in Abkhazia," he said, referring to a war between Tbilisi and Abkhaz separatists who were backed by Russia. "They are not just destroying houses, but killing people on the ground."Leaders of the Baltic states, Ukraine and Poland descended on Tbilisi late Tuesday and spoke before a cheerful crowd gathered on Rustaveli Avenue."You Georgians stay united, and only united you will win," Latvian President Vladis Zatlers told the crowd, which chanted "Sakartvelo!" ("Georgia!")."Me Kartveli var! [I am a Georgian!]" Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves shouted from the podium.Sarkozy did not go out to address the gathering, apparently in order not to be associated with leaders who have offered enormous support to Georgia in its conflict with Russia.Later Wednesday, 27 EU foreign ministers who gathered in Brussels agreed, after terse debates, to send monitors to supervise the cease-fire between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia. "The EU must be ready to engage, including on the ground, to support all efforts, including those of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for a lasting and peaceful settlement of the conflict in Georgia," the joint statement said. (Story, Page 3.)France's foreign minister, who accompanied Sarkozy on a lightning visit to Moscow on Tuesday, told reporters Wednesday that he was convinced that Moscow would accept a European presence in Georgia.Meanwhile, Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity said they would not negotiate with Tbilisi. "Only a judge of an international tribunal should talk to them," Kokoity said, Interfax reported.Staff Writer Nikolaus von Twickel reported from Gori and Tbilisi; Staff Writer Nabi Abdullaev reported from Moscow.

U.S. Allies weigh punishment for Russia

European allies of the U.S. may very well not be enthusiastic about "punishing" Russia for not acceding to the U.S. push to surround Russia with "democratic" pro-US states without resistance. There is increasing evidence that both China and Russia are not anxious to toe any western line on global events. The U.S. is developing some new allies such as India and has long had the undying devotion of some Commonwealth countries and the UK. However Europe is dependent upon Russian natural gas among other things so it is not likely to provoke the Russian bear without very good reason.
Russia seems to be emulating the Georgian president however in going too far by actually sending troops into Georgia proper and taking the opportunity to destroy a lot of Georgian military infrastructure. However, with the pressure from the U.S. and the international community Russia will probably more or less obey the terms of the ceasefire.

US, Allies Weigh Punishment for RussiaBy MATTHEW LEEWASHINGTON (AP) -- Scrambling to find ways to punish Russia for its invasion of pro-Western Georgia, the United States and its allies are considering expelling Moscow from an exclusive club of powerful nations and canceling an upcoming joint NATO-Russia military exercise, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.But with little leverage in the face of an emboldened Moscow, Washington and its friends have been forced to face the uncomfortable reality that their options are limited to mainly symbolic measures, such as boycotting Russian-hosted meetings and events, that may have little or no long-term impact on Russia's behavior, the officials said.With the situation on the ground still unclear after Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday ordered a halt to military action in Georgia, U.S. officials were focused primarily on confirming a ceasefire and attending to Georgia's urgent humanitarian needs following five days of fierce fighting, including Russian attacks on civilian targets."It is very important now that all parties cease fire," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. "The Georgians have agreed to a ceasefire, the Russians need to stop their military operations as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do now need to stop because calm needs to be restored."At the same time, however, President Bush and his top aides were engaged in frantic consultations with European and other nations over how best to demonstrate their fierce condemnations of the Russian operation that began in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia, expanded to another disputed area, Abkhazia, and ended up on purely Georgian soil."The idea is to show the Russians that it is no longer business as usual," said one senior official familiar with the consultations among world leaders that were going on primarily by phone and in person at NATO headquarters in Brussels where alliance diplomats met together and then with representatives of Georgia.For now, the Bush administration decided to boycott a third meeting at NATO on Tuesday at which the alliance's governing board, the North Atlantic Council, was preparing for a meeting with a Russian delegation that has been called at Moscow's request, officials said.On the table for future action is the possible cancellation or U.S. withdrawal from a major NATO naval exercise with Russia that is scheduled to begin Friday, the officials said. Sailors and vessels from Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S. were to take part in the annual Russia-NATO exercise aimed at improving cooperation in maritime security.The exercise, which is being hosted by Russia this year, began a decade ago and typically involves around 1,000 personnel from the four countries, the officials said.In the medium term, the United States and its partners in the Group of Seven, or G-7, the club of the world's leading industrialized nations that also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, are debating whether to effectively disband what is known as the "G-8," which incorporates Russia, by throwing Moscow out, the officials said.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have yet been made and consultations with other countries involved are still ongoing.Bush spoke on Monday and Tuesday with fellow G-7 leaders as well as the heads of democratically elected pro-Western governments in formerly Eastern Bloc nations, some of which are among NATO's newest members and have urged a strong response to Russia's invasion of a like-minded country.On Monday on his way home from the Olympics in China, Bush talked with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Polish President Lech Kaczynski. He then spoke to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the White House said. On Tuesday, he spoke with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Rice, who returned early to Washington late Monday from vacation to deal with the crisis, held a second round of talks with foreign ministers from the Group of Seven countries in which they were briefed on European Union mediation efforts led by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met Tuesday with Medvedev in Moscow."They believe that they have made some progress and we welcome that and we certainly welcome the E.U. mediation," Rice told reporters at the White House.Despite the flurry of activity, there was still uncertainty about whether Russia had in fact halted its military action in Georgia with reports of continued shelling of civilian and military sites.The State Department on Tuesday recommended that all U.S. citizens leave Georgia in a new travel warning, saying the security situation remained uncertain. It said it was organizing a third evacuation convoy to take Americans who want to leave by road to neighboring Armenia. More that 170 American citizens have already left Georgia in two earlier convoys.Just hours after Bush said in a White House address that the invasion had "substantially damaged Russia's standing in the world" and demanded an end to what he called Moscow's "dramatic and brutal escalation" of violence, Medvedev said he had ordered an end to military action.But Georgia insisted that Russian forces were still bombing and shelling and White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Tuesday it was too early to comment on Medvedev's move. "We are trying to get an assessment of what a halt means and whether it is taking place, of course," the spokesman added.Typifying the administration's dilemma, a planned late-morning White House briefing by national security adviser Stephen Hadley was postponed "until further notice" due to ongoing developments in Georgia and in Moscow, where Sarkozy was meeting with Russian officials on behalf of the West.The State Department on Tuesday recommended that all U.S. citizens leave Georgia in a new travel warning, saying the security situation remained uncertain. It said it was organizing a third evacuation convoy to take Americans who want to leave by road to neighboring Armenia. More that 170 American citizens have already left Georgia in two earlier convoys.___

Medvedev tells Bush Russia aims to force Georgia to accept peace

This is from RIA Novosti (Russia)
This is more or less an official Russian viewpoint on the conflict or at least a state sanctioned report. The report of Georgian peacekeepers shooting Russian peacekeepers is interesting for it has never been mentioned in any western media reports I have seen. According to another RIA Novosti report the South Ossetian capital has been taken back from Georgia forces who had occupied it. This situation would have been been even more serious if Georgia was a member of NATO. Of course the U.S. is a big ally of Georgia. Georgia has sent troops to aid the U.S. in Iraq. It now wants them to be flown back home by the U.S. Georgia probably hoped to bolster its position prior to peace talks which had already been scheduled before Georgia mounted this offensive. The attack has no doubted backfired and created a very dangerous volatile situation.


Medvedev tells Bush Russia aims to force Georgia to accept peace
09/ 08/ 2008

MOSCOW, August 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian president told his U.S. counterpart on Saturday that Russia's ongoing military operation in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia is aimed at forcing Georgia to accept peace.
Bush's phone conversation with Dmitry Medvedev came after the U.S. leader called on Russia to stop bombing targets in Georgia, and voiced concern over the escalating violence.
Medvedev was quoted by the Kremlin as telling Bush: "Acting within our peacekeeping mission, and in line with the mandate issued by the international community, Russia is engaged in the task of forcing the Georgian side to accept peace, while defending the lives and property of its citizens, as is required under the Constitution and laws of the Russian Federation, and the legal standards of any civilized country.
Georgia, the main U.S. ally in the Caucasus Region, launched a major ground and air offensive to seize control of South Ossetia on Friday, prompting Russia to send in tanks and hundreds of troops. Georgia imposed martial law on Saturday after Russian warplanes began bombarding military bases.
Russia says 12 of its servicemen have been killed in the violence, and 2,000 civilians in South Ossetia have lost their lives. Around 30,000 refugees have flooded across the border into Russia to escape the violence since Friday morning.
A senior Russian diplomat said on Saturday that the country may ask the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to investigate war crimes committed by Georgia.
"I do not rule out that the Hague and Strasbourg courts and institutions in other cities will be involved in investigating these crimes, and this inhuman drama that has been played out," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told news agencies in an interview broadcast on the Vesti-24 TV channel.
Russian peacekeepers "were killed by their own [Georgian] partners in the peacekeeping forces," he said.
"There is a Russian battalion, an Ossetian battalion, and a Georgian battalion... and all of a sudden the Georgians, Georgian peacekeepers, begin shooting their Russian colleagues. This is of course a war crime," Karasin said.
The ongoing conflict is the most severe since South Ossetia fought its way to independence from Georgia in 1992. The majority of the local population have Russian citizenship.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said earlier that Russian combat aircraft had bombed several Georgian military bases, one near the capital Tbilisi, as well as the Black Sea port city of Poti.
Georgian media also reported airstrikes on the city of Gori, and said several civilians had been killed.
However, Russian Deputy Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn denied that warplanes had struck non-military targets.
"We are not fighting peaceful towns, and are not conducting military strikes against civilians. We are only seeking to ensure peace," he said.
Georgia says it has shot down a total of 10 Russian combat aircraft, while Russia says it has lost two planes.
The Russian government has warned that a humanitarian disaster is developing as South Ossetians, many of them injured, flee across the border into Russia.