Russia intensifies attack on Georgia

Russian planes, troops and artillery units pounded the Georgian city of Gori in a “massive” attack, Georgian officials said Monday as the three-day war over an ethnic enclave in Georgia appeared to escalate.

“There was massive bombing of Gori all evening and now we are getting reports of an imminent attack by Russian tanks,” said ministry official Shota Utiashvili, who was quoted early Monday in a report by Agence France-Presse.

Gori is in Georgia, south of the border with South Ossetia, the disputed region that prompted the bloody conflict.

Georgia on Sunday said it was withdrawing troops from the embattled region of South Ossetia as part of a cease-fire proposal meant to stop an expanding war with Russia.

But Moscow dismissed the gesture by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, as Russian jets, troops and tanks continued a relentless assault on targets across Georgia.

Georgian officials said Russian jets, marking a significant expansion of its operations, bombed the civilian airport in Tbilisi, the capital.

Yevgeniy Khorishko, an official at the Russian Embassy in Washington, said he had no official confirmation of the strike and he questioned the sincerity of Mr. Saakashvili’s gesture.

“At this moment the Georgian troops, despite President Saakashvili’s promises of a cease-fire, are regrouping with heavy armor and artillery to launch new attacks,” Mr. Khorishko said in an e-mail.

He said the Georgian military is undergoing a “mass mobilization” and cited the fact that Georgian troops now in Iraq have been called home.

President Bush sought to contain the conflict in Georgia on Sunday as the White House warned that “Russian aggression must not go unanswered,” the Associated Press reported.

Mr. Bush, in Beijing for the Olympics, has pressed for internaitonal mediation and reached out Sunday to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads the European Union. The two agreed on the need for a cease-fire and a respect for Georgia’s integrity, a White House spokesman said.

The U.N. Security Council met for the fourth time in four days Sunday, with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad accusing Moscow of seeking “regime change” in Georgia and resisting attempts to make peace. Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Russians don’t use the expression, but acknowledged there were occasions when elected leaders “become an obstacle.”

On Friday, Russian forces crossed into neighboring Georgia ostensibly to repel a Georgian military attack against South Ossetia, one of two self-declared autonomous regions backed by Moscow and populated by people who are not ethnic Georgians and many of whom carry Russian passports.

Death tolls are impossible to confirm.

The Russian government said 15 Russian peacekeeping troops have been killed and 150 wounded. It accuses the Georgian military of killing 2,000 South Ossetians.

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