By
CBS News
.
Published: Sun, August 10, 2008 - 10:55 am
Russian aircraft on Sunday bombed the Zugdidi region, which lies in Georgia, next to its breakaway province of Abkhazia, Georgia's Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaia said.Rustavi TV showed amateur video of the Russian air force on operations in the area.
Lomaia also confirmed that Kodori, in Abkhazia, came under attack, which he blamed on Russia.
Separatist authorities in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia mobilised the army and called up reservists on Sunday to drive Georgian government forces out of the small part of the province still under Georgian control.
Abkhazia separatist forces are concentrating on the border with Georgia's Zugdidi region and Russia's NTV television has reported additional Russian troops landed in Abkhazia, heading in the same direction.
Russia also has sent a naval squadron to blockade Georgia's Black Sea coast, the Interfax news agency reported.
Lomaia confirmed Russia has imposed what he called an illegal blockade on Georgia and turned back several ships with humanitarian supplies.
He said Georgian administrative buildings and two villages in Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge were bombed by Russians, but there were no casualties.
Lomaia said Russia also raided a Georgian military facility in the Zugdidi region just south of Abkhazia, also inflicting no casualties.
Meanwhile, 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.
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.
Russia also expanded its bombing blitz on Sunday against neighbouring US-allied Georgia, targeting the country's capital for the first time as Russian and Georgian troops continued battling for the contested province of South Ossetia.
Russian military aircraft also raided the Georgian town of Gori on Saturday.
On Sunday, Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili demanded "actions" from Western countries on Sunday, after a meeting in Tbilisi with a delegation from the European Union.
"I think now time for naming and shaming, time for expressing moral and oral support are gone," Iakobashvili said.
"Now we ask from the West action, actions to defend Georgia, to defend democracy, to defend independent states and to defend the world order and we hope that this reaction will follow," he said.
Also on Sunday, a senior Georgian official said Georgian troops have fully pulled out of the breakaway province of South Ossetia, as Russia has demanded.
Georgia's Security Council chief said Georgian troops have relocated to new positions outside South Ossetia.
Russia has demanded Georgia pull its troops from South Ossetia as a condition to negotiate a cease-fire.
It has also urged Georgia to sign a pledge not to use force against South Ossetia as another condition for ending hostilities.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Moscow now needs to verify the Georgian withdrawal.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Georgia angered Russia by seeking NATO membership - a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
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I’m still trying to see if Georgia still has any of those old Soviet nuclear missiles ! Now that would be a real mess. Just think of gas prices then ! probably $20 a gallon to those that didn’t die from radiation.