يذكر السي ان ان ان جورجيا اطلقت هجوم جديد ., ربما يعزز هذا ادعاء الاوسيتين بفشل الهجوم الاول
و ربما غير ذلك
Russians accused of 'bombing' Georgia as violence escalates
TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- A Russian military aircraft dropped two bombs on Georgia territory Friday
morning, a Georgian official claimed, causing no casualties but escalating tensions that have gripped Georgia and a breakaway territory with strong ties to Russia.
Georgian troops patrol the ethnic Georgian village of Ergneti.
The charge came about an hour after Russia's ambassador to the United Nations brushed off a question about whether Russia would intervene militarily in a conflict between Georgia and its breakaway territory of South Ossetia.
Violence in the former Soviet republic prompted an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council that lasted into Friday morning. The security council failed to issue a statement on the dramatic escalation of violence in a breakaway territory of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.
The council spoke as Georgia troops continued their push into the breakaway territory of South Ossetia, which has de-facto independence and strong ties to Russia but remains part of Georgia.
Georgian forces launched fresh attacks into region late Thursday after a top government official said a unilateral cease-fire offer was met with artillery fire.
About 2,000 Georgian troops attempted to storm the breakaway territory's capital overnight and were regrouping south of the city, Tskhinvali, according to Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency.
Russia has close ties to
, and Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations, Irakli Alasania, said at the United Nations that "Russia has become a party to the conflict." He said Russia has supported separatists in South Ossetia, a charge that Russia dismissed.
Around 10 a.m. Friday, Georgia said Russian military aircraft violated Georgian airspace and dropped two bombs on Kareli, a part of Georgia that is about 50 miles northwest of the capital, Tblisi, and is not in the conflict zone, said Shota Utiashvili, spokesman for the Georgian Ministry of Interior. No casualties were reported, he said.
Georgian troops pushed into South Ossetia after separatists attacked Georgian soil, destroying one village and killing several civilians, soldiers and police officers, Alasania said.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, denied allegations that his country planned to intervene militarily. In comments to the Security Council, he decried the "blatant aggressive action of Georgia."
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The latest developments follow a week of sporadic clashes between the Georgian central government and authorities in South Ossetia, which declared its independence from
in the early 1990s after a bloody ethnic conflict between Georgians and Ossetians.
Alexander Lomaia, the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said his country had to act.
"The objective of the operation is to protect the civilian population, to ensure their security and then convince the separatists that there is not a military solution to this conflict," he said.
Lomaia said Georgian troops were responding proportionately to separatist mortar and artillery attacks on two villages -- attacks he said followed a Thursday evening cease-fire and call for negotiations by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.
"There were up to 10 people killed, including peacekeepers and the peaceful population, and up to 23 people wounded, including four of them wounded quite badly," Lomaia said. But he said Georgia wants a peaceful solution to the conflict and is leaving the door open to negotiations and has offered the territory "the widest possible autonomy."
The official news agency of the South Ossetian government reported heavy shelling in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, that left dozens of buildings ablaze.
Lomaia said Georgian troops have no plans to reclaim control over the territory as part of the operation launched Thursday night -- but he said how far they advance "is really dependent on how the situation evolves on the ground."
"Obviously, there will be a moment when we will be forced to respond, we will be forced to advance in order to prevent such bombardment," he said. "But at the time being, there is no such aim of the operation."
Georgia, located on the Black Sea coast between
and Turkey, has been split by Russian-backed separatist movements in South Ossetia and another region, Abkhzia. Neither region's government has international recognition.
On Thursday, Georgia's foreign ministry laid blame for the latest round of violence on Russia.
"The only way that separatists manage to maintain their grip on power is through military, human and technical resources provided to them by the Russian Federation," the ministry said in a written statement. "The military assistance rendered to the separatists' criminal regime by the Russian Federation, in violation of all agreements, cannot be assessed in any other way than as another act of aggression committed against Georgia."
Georgian and South Ossetian negotiators had been scheduled to meet Friday in Tskhinvali, Moscow's chief negotiator, Yuri Popov, told the Russian news agency Interfax.
Saakashvili announced Thursday night that he had ordered his troops to cease fire and called on the international community to help bring South Ossetian authorities to the negotiating table.
"We must stop this spiral of violence," he said.
But Lomaia said that call was met with more attacks. In addition, he said hundreds of "mercenaries" -- or "volunteers," as the South Ossetians described them -- are pouring across the border from Russia to join the fight. The commander of a Russian peacekeeping mission has told Georgian officials that his troops are unable to control the situation, Lomaia said
