US sends Georgia help as Russia breaks ceasefire, Russian forces sink Georgian ships

[monson]

US sends Georgia help as Russia breaks ceasefire

Moscow/Tbilisi - A ceasefire ending the Ossetia war was in tatters on Wednesday with Russian armoured and naval forces violating terms supposedly agreed upon the day before, and the US announcing it would send its own naval and air forces to the region. US President George W Bush announced a sharp response to the Russian troop and naval movements, declaring America would send its own air force and fleet to the region "for humanitarian purposes."

A Russian armoured unit shortly after dawn drove into Georgian border town Gori, entered a Georgian tank base, and was destroying the installation and carrying off loot, witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Russian regular motor rifle unit rode on BMP and BTR armoured personnel carriers and, according to soldiers interviewed, had spent four days driving from Chechnya to the Ossetia sector. There were at least 21 Russian combat vehicles and more than 100 soldiers visible to witnesses.

Smoke was rising from the Gori tank base by mid-afternoon. Four Czech reporters encountering the Russian soldiers were taken into custody.

Georgian media reported murders of ethnic Georgians in villages near the border between Georgia and Ossetia. The Human Rights Watch confirmed the reports, noting houses looted burned by Ossetian militia in six Georgian villages.

Colonel General Anatoly Nogovytsyn, Russia's army chief of staff, speaking at a Moscow press conference, flatly denied Russian troops had entered Gori. Witnesses including Gori residents interviewed by

Russian forces sink Georgian ships

Russian forces in armoured personnel carriers had "taken over the town of Gori"[Al Jazeera]

Russian forces have sunk several vessels in Georgia's military port of Poti, Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid has reported from the scene.

The attack on Wednesday follows a day of dramatic developments in the Russia-Georgia conflict amid what appears to be an escalation of military action on the ground.

Abdel Hamid said: "Russia is clearly on the offensive.

"We have seen more and more Russian troops coming into the area all day - a continuous build up of forces including columns of tanks and truck all along the roads here.

"They came into this area and destroyed six Georgian vessels.

"From what we understand, they came with the specific task of destroying all the military facilities of the Georgians," she said.

Al Jazeera's Jonah Hull said: "Poti is one of the most important ports in the Black Sea.

"The offensive means that the ceasefire is dead - back to ground zero."

 

[lkdood]

US sends Georgia help as Russia breaks ceasefire


Russian forces sink Georgian ships