Russian forces heading for Gori town

By Peter Gill: Russian troops are heading towards the Georgian town of Gori, which Georgian forces are positioned to defend, Georgia's National Security Council chief Alexander Lomaia said Sunday by telephone.

"Russian troops are heading south and the next place in that direction is the town of Gori. Our troops are positioned to defend the town," Lomaia said in a conference call from Tbilisi. Gori, about 65 kilometres (40 miles) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, is just south of the border with the breakaway region of South Ossetia, which is the focal point of the conflict.

Meanwhile, the leader of the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Sunday decreed a 10-day "state of war" in areas close to Georgian-controlled territory, Russia's Interfax news agency reported.

Separatist authorities in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia mobilised the army and called up reservists Sunday to drive Georgian government forces out of the small part of the province still under Georgian control. The move dramatically raises the stakes in the conflict between Georgia and Russia over another separatist province, South Ossetia. With most Georgian troops concentrated on fighting Russian troops in South Ossetia, it could be hard for Georgia to repel the Abkhazian offensive. In addition, Russia troops were seen moving through Abkahzia toward the border with Georgia. Abkhazia's President Sergei Bagapsh said he issued a decree putting the province's troops on high alert and mobilising some reservists after Georgia launched a military campaign to regain control over South Ossetia. Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and have built up close ties with Moscow. Russia has granted passports to most of their residents.

Russia's NTV television said more Russian troops arrived in Abkhazia in addition to peacekeepers deployed there for more than a decade, heading toward the border with Georgia. It showed a long convoy of armoured vehicles rolling through the Abkhaz capital, Sukhumi.

Bagapsh said he wouldn't conduct any talks with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's government. "There can be no dialogue with the Georgian leadership, they are criminals," he said. Bagapsh said Abkhazian troops aim to push Georgian troops out of the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.

"We are conducting artillery shelling and air strikes there," Bagapsh said at a news conference. Georgia's Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaia confirmed that Kodori came under attack, but he blamed it on Russia. Russian aircraft on Sunday also bombed Georgia's Zugdidi region, which lies next to Abkhazia, he said.

Bagapsh said Abkhazian forces also moved into a buffer zone on the border with Georgia's Zugdidi region to "enforce order" and eliminate the Georgian militants who had mounted attacks on Abkhazian police and security forces from there.

Russian military officials wouldn't comment on the deployment, but the Georgian government said 4,000 Russian troops landed in Abkhazia on Saturday.

Bagapsh acknowledged the Abkhazian move into the buffer zone would violate a peace agreement that ended the 1992-1993 war in which the region won de-facto independence, but claimed that Georgia was the first to violate the truce. "We will call up more reservists if necessary," Bagapsh said, adding that Russia has sent its naval squadron to Georgia's Black Sea coast at his request.

The Georgian government issued a statement Sunday warning Abkhazia against joining the conflict.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Sunday called for an investigation into alleged acts of genocide by Georgian forces during their offensive against the breakaway province of South Ossetia.

Incidents described by refugees "lie beyond the framework of understanding of military actions," Putin told President Dmitry Medvedev in comments broadcast Sunday on Russian television.

A plane dropped a series of bombs on the outskirts of Tbilisi on Sunday near a military airport that Georgian officials say was hit by Russia earlier in the day, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The bombs fell near a hangar in the airport and were within the perimeter of the facility, causing no damage to nearby settlements.

A Turkish television station says two of its journalists were slightly injured after their vehicle came under fire in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia. Kanalturk television says two other Turkish journalists working for another network escaped without injuries.

Kanalturk says the injured reporter and cameraman were taken to a hospital and were in good condition. It gave no further information and did not say who fired on the journalists' vehicle Sunday. The journalists had just arrived in the provincial capital of Tskhinvali to cover the fighting between Russian troops and Georgian forces.