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Georgia declares ’state of war’
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
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The Georgian President has declared a ’state of war’ between Tbilisi and Moscow following Russian reports of ‘liberating’ South Ossetia.
“I have signed a decree on a state of war. Georgia is in a state of total military aggression,” Mikheil Saakashvili told a televised meeting of his national security council.
Saakashvili also said that he would ask the parliament to approve martial law.
Tbilisi accused Moscow on Saturday of bombing residential buildings in the Georgian city of Gori, 50 kilometers from the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, which has been the scene of fierce clashes between Russian and Georgian forces.
Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a spokesman for Russian Defense Ministry, denied the charges, saying “We are not attacking peaceful towns and we are not carrying out military operations against the civilian population.”
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin said on Saturday that more than 30,000 refugees have fled South Ossetia since Thursday, when Georgian army began a large-scale offensive against separatists in order to regain control of the province, which declared independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
About 1,600 civilians have been killed so far in Tskhinvali, according to South Ossetian government spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva.
Source: PressTV
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