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WASHINGTON, Aug. 14, 2008 – The humanitarian mission under way in Georgia is intended to alleviate suffering for now and will move into longer-range help in the future, officials said at a Pentagon news conference today. The Air Force has sent two supply-filled C-17 Globemaster III transports into Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi. More flights will follow, officials said, but none are scheduled just yet. Russian troops who invaded Georgia last week are beginning to pull back, Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates also spoke at...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticised media reports on Wednesday which had claimed that Russian tanks were on their way to Tbilisi. Lavrov told a news conference that a Russian convoy driving away from Gori had been on a mission to safeguard weaponry abandoned by the Georgians – and had never been destined for the country’s capital. “The weapons were ready for use, including the tanks,” he said. “It would have been mad to turn a blind eye to that and pass by the munitions. Anyone with bad intentions - a madman - could have jumped in a tank...

This is the dramatic moment a TV reporter was shot by a sniper as she reported live from war-torn Georgia. Tamara Urushadze took a bullet to her left arm in the flashpoint town of Gori as Russian forces continued their illegal occupation. Bravely, or foolishly, the 32-year-old brunette continued her report after a few moments as other journalists and aid workers dashed for cover.

Russia has defied an order by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, to obey the peace deal with Georgia, as its Foreign Minister announced the world can "forget about" Georgia's territorial integrity. Earlier claims that Russian troops had commenced a withdrawal from Gori were dismissed as at least five explosions were heard in the town. Journalists were forced to leave by a Russian soldier firing shots into the air. Troops are also thought to have returned to the strategically important port town of Poti. A Georgian spokesman said: "The Russian troops are destroying the city of Gori. They are...

<p>GORI, Georgia (AP) - The Georgian Foreign Ministry says more Russian troops have moved into the strategically key city of Gori even though a withdrawal had appeared to be under way earlier in the day.</p> <p>Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani also said Thursday that Russian troops had moved into the Black Sea oil port city of Poti, from which they had appeared to leave earlier.</p>

GEORGIAN forces are retaking control of the Georgian city of Gori as the Russian military withdraws, Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.. "The Russians have started to withdraw, the Georgian police and special forces are taking control," he said. An Agence France-Presse reporter arrived in Gori with a convoy of about 20 police vehicles containing armed officers. He said he saw a Russian tank, armoured personnel carrier and soldiers at a Russian checkpoint at the entrance to the city. According to residents fleeing Gori on Wednesday, the city was the scene of looting and violence as Russian troops and militiamen...

GORI, Georgia (AP) - Plans for Russian troops to leave the key Georgian city of Gori appear to have broken down. Early Thursday, the Georgian Interior Ministry said Russian forces were leaving the city that they had taken the day before even though a cease-fire was in effect. (snip) But around midday, the Georgian officials left and some 15 SUVs filled with Georgian soldiers approached a Russian checkpoint on the city's outskirts, pointing guns at the Russian soldiers who then lay in the ground and appeared to prepare for combat. Several Russian tanks then hurried to the position and the...

The use of units comprised of ethnic Chechens to do much of the very dirty work in Georgia. The nickname [‘Shrek’] given by his comrades to the bald, pug-eared soldier was the only moment of light relief during a day of tense drama in which The Times witnessed Russia breaching the ceasefire agreement over South Ossetia at will. At a checkpoint set up by the Russian Army on the approach to the city of Gori from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, an armoured personnel carrier blocked the road and riflemen had fanned out in the surrounding bushes, their weapons trained on...

Energy: Russia's bloody invasion of a smaller neighbor whose territory includes a vital oil pipeline has left many people wondering: What can we do? Plenty, it turns out — including some things right here at home.Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced he was halting Russia's air and ground attack on Georgia, but someone forgot to tell Russia's military. It has continued its brutal assault, with news reports that Russian troops have started looting, raping and savagely attacking Georgian civilians. It's clear former President Vladimir Putin, not his handpicked successor Medvedev, is calling the shots. Putin's made no secret of the fact...

President George W. Bush announced the dispatch of a U.S. military aircraft carrying medical supplies to the Georgian capital of Tblisi on Wednesday morning, warning Russia that he expected it to be allowed to deliver its aid by air and sea. The statement, with its echoes of the 1961 Berlin airlift, upped tensions between the two former Cold War adversaries. The day after Russia agreed to a French-brokered cease-fire, Russian troops followed by irregular fighters pushed deep into Georgia, aiming to seize the strategic city of Gori and cutting the main highway that crosses the country to the capital Tbilisi....

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- Georgia's deputy defense minister says Russian troops are apparently pulling out of two towns. Bato Kuteliya said Wednesday the troops had left the western town of Zugdidi -- near the breakaway province of Abkhazia -- and are expected to leave the city of Gori shortly.

An AP reporter saw dozens of trucks and armored vehicles leaving Gori, roaring southeast. Soldiers waved at journalists and one soldier jokingly shouted to a photographer: "Come with us, beauty, we're going to Tbilisi!" But the convoy turned north and left the highway about an hour's drive from the Georgian capital, and set up camp a mile off the road. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russian troops were near Gori to secure weapons left behind by the Georgians. To the west, Russian-backed Abkhazian separatists pushed Georgian troops out of Abkhazia and even moved into Georgian territory itself, defiantly planting...

<p>OUTSIDE GORI, Georgia - Russian troops and paramilitaries rolled into the strategic Georgian city of Gori on Wednesday, apparently violating a truce designed to end the conflict that has uprooted tens of thousands and scarred the Georgian landscape Georgian officials said Gori, a central hub on Georgia's main east-west highway, was looted and bombed by the Russians before they left later in the day.</p>

The Sun witnessed the latest horror as a blood-splattered tot was rushed screaming to a shattered hospital in the gateway city of Gori. It was 5pm — four hours after fighting should have stopped. The one-year-old boy with an ugly head wound was carried from a police car. With him was his uninjured sister, three — smeared with his blood. Minutes later, a second cop car screeched to a halt. Inside was the children’s mother, in agony from gunshot wounds in her right shoulder and leg. She was loaded on to a trolley. After a brief examination all three were...

South Ossetian separatists backed by Russian forces were accused today of deliberately targeting civilians around the abandoned Georgian city of Gori in blatant defiance of a French-brokered ceasefire. But Georgian officials said that there was no need to panic over a long armed Russian column that rolled out of the city today and headed south towards the capital, Tbilisi. The convoy of around 100 vehicles, including armoured personnel carriers, turned off the road after 20 km and was thought to be looping back to the disputed enclave. The ceasefire was agreed yesterday and endorsed both by President Medvedev of Russia...

Russian military convoys have left Gori and are advancing towards a Georgian village, in defiance of the EU-brokered truce. A column of 70 Russian military vehicles, including military trucks with anti-aircraft guns and artillery, as well as armoured personnel carriers, pursued by a large contingent of the world's media, left Gori on the road to Tbilisi and turned left a few kilometres outside of the frontline Georgian town. Russian troops claimed they were on a "humanitarian mission", however, the true purpose of the mission remained unclear as reports of burning and looting in villages near Gori by South Ossetian rebels...

RUSSIA last night violated its ceasefire with Georgia, sending an armoured convoy deeper into the Western-aligned former Soviet republic less than a day after the deal was brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. About 60 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles left the key Georgian town of Gori and was headed towards the capital Tbilisi, 75km away. Russian soldiers leaned out of the windows of the trucks shouting "Tbilisi! Tbilisi!'' and waving Russian flags, about 10km south of Gori, from where Georgian forces last Friday launched their offensive on the breakaway province of South Ossetia. The move out of...

Separatist fighters and Russian troops have looted and set homes ablaze in Georgian territory amid fears over a fragile ceasefire that ended five days of bitter conflict. Despite a French-brokered truce agreed to by the leaders of the two countries, Russia faces mounting criticism in the West. Russian armoured vehicles patrolled the flashpoint town of Gori and about 60 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles were seen on the road from Gori to the Georgian capital, 75 kilometres away. An AFP reporter saw Russian troops shouting: "Tbilisi, Tbilisi". But Russia has denied these reports. "No Russian troops or armour...

Russia has ordered an incursion into a frontline Georgian town in defiance of the terms of an overnight peace deal brokered by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. As the EU announced plans to send peacekeeping troops to monitor the ceasefire, Russian troops destroyed an empty Georgian military base in Gori and set up a checkpoint on the road to Tbilisi. In clear defiance of the spirit of Mr Sarkozy's peace deal, Russia appeared to be working to cement a buffer zone for South Ossetia. A Georgian official claimed that 50 tanks had moved into Gori and South Ossetian snipers were also...

FRANCE 24 reporters saw a Russian armoured column move into position on a hill above the Georgian city of Gori and install mortars. Georgia earlier accused Russia of moving troops inside Georgia despite a ceasefire deal. (Photo: DKTV2) A day after warring Georgia and Russia agreed to a ceasefire, the conflict in the Caucasus appears far from resolved. On Wednesday morning, FRANCE 24 reporters saw a column of Russian Special Forces armoured vehicles move into position on a hill above the Georgian city of Gori and install mortars. “The Russian forces have climbed a hill dominating Gori and are installing...