Russia and Georgia at war?

Russia and Georgia at war?

This could be pretty big. Russian troops have entered Geogria and there is fighting going on between the two countries. Geogria is a pro Western former soviet country.

Geogrian President claiming its war, and the world should stop Russia. Also claiming its going to bring its soilders back from Iraq to help.

Wonder if Urkraine & Lithuania will offer support?

Quote:
GEORGIA and Russia are in a bloody fight said to have already claimed more than 1400 people amid claims of ethnic cleansing.
A senior Georgian security official said Russian planes had bombed a military base outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The Interior Ministry said later that three Georgian soldiers were killed.

As fighting raged, the roar of warplanes and the explosion of heavy shells resounded more than 3km from Tskhinvali. Many houses were ablaze.

Georgian television showed footage of burnt-out cottages and bombed roads and Georgian tanks revving their engines.

Soldiers fired machineguns and armoured personnel carriers moved through the deserted streets of Tskhinvali.

Shell holes pierced the concrete apartment bocks and plumes of smoke hung over the South Ossetian capital.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the Georgians of driving people from their homes.

"We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people are trying to save their lives," he said in televised remarks from the ministry.

The Interfax news agency said about 140 buses carrying refugees from South Ossetia arrived in the adjacent Russian region of North Ossetia.

The crisis has flared in a region emerging as a key energy transit route, and where Russia and the West are vying for influence.

The majority of the roughly 70,000 people living in South Ossetia are ethnically distinct from Georgians. They say they were forcibly absorbed into Georgia under Soviet rule and now want to exercise their right to self-determination.

Fight for control
Georgia says its forces are in control of the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, but rebels say Russian armoured vehicles have entered the northern edges of the city.
"Tskhinvali and the heights around Tskhinvali and the majority of the villages in South Ossetia are under the control of Georgian forces," Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a televised address.
However, the separatists' press service said on its website cominf.org: "Russian armoured vehicles have entered the northern suburbs of Tskhinvali". It added that Georgian troops had started to retreat.
Moscow said its troops were responding to a Georgian assault to re-take the breakaway region, and Mr Saakashvili said the two countries were at war.
The Georgian leader said on television: "What Russia is doing in Georgia is open, unhidden aggression and a challenge to the whole world.
"If the whole world does not stop Russia today, then Russian tanks will be able to reach any other European capital."
Calls to end conflict
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia to withdraw combat troops from Georgia and stop air strikes.
"We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil," she said.
The President of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, was quoted as saying about 1400 people had been killed as a result of "Georgian aggression".
"About 1400 died. We will check these figures, but the order of the numbers is around this. We have this on the basis of reports from relatives," he told Russia's Interfax news agency.
The head of Georgia's Security Council, Kakha Lomaia, said Georgia would withdraw 100 soldiers from Iraq to help fight off Russian forces in South Ossetia.
The Russian Transport Ministry said Russia would cut air links with the ex-Soviet state from midnight.
President George W. Bush, in Beijing for the opening of the Olympic Games, pledged US support for Georgia's territorial integrity, the White House said.
"I want to reiterate on his behalf that the United States supports Georgia's territorial integrity and we call for an immediate ceasefire," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the US was sending an envoy to the region. Envoys from the European Union and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe were also due to head to Georgia.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he had spoken to the Russian and Georgian foreign ministers, Sergei Lavrov and Eka Tkeshelashvili, to call for an end to the violence.
"I am deeply concerned over the dramatic situation in Georgia and I deplore the loss of human lives and the suffering inflicted on the civilian population," he said.
The Kremlin said Mr Medvedev spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and told her "the only possible way out is the withdrawal of Georgian forces to starting positions".