Georgia calls for cease-fire

Russian jets carried out up to five raids on mostly military targets around the Georgian town of Gori, close to the conflict zone in South Ossetia, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. At least one bomb hit an apartment block, killing 5 people.

A woman knelt in the street and screamed over the body of a dead man as the bombed apartment block burned nearby. Another old woman covered in blood stared into the distance and a man knelt by the road, his head in his hands.

In Tbilisi, people were nervous but defiant. Most supported Saakashvili but had been shocked by the Russian reaction.

“To fight Russia is crazy,” said music studio owner Giga Kvenetadze, 30. “But I do support Saakashvili ... And what Russia is doing is wrong. They must stop.”

Russia’s ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, said at least 2,000 civilians had been killed. Georgian officials said 129 Georgians had been killed and 748 injured.

Georgia said Russian planes had targeted a vital pipeline that carries oil to the West from Asia but had missed.

Russian troops poured into South Ossetia on Friday, hours after Georgia launched a major offensive aimed at restoring control over the province.

Russia is the main backer of South Ossetian separatists and the majority of the population, who are ethnically distinct from Georgians, have been given Russian passports.

Georgia was planning to bring its Iraq contingent of 2,000 soldiers home as soon as the United States can provide transport, the commander of the unit said on Saturday.

Each side blamed the other for the outbreak of fighting in the pro-Moscow enclave, which broke from Georgia when the Soviet Union was nearing collapse in the early 1990s.

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