FRI AUG 08 2008 — South Ossetian rebel minister reports that more than 1,000 people killed in overnight shelling of the city of Tskhinvali [MAP/SAT].
The Russian incursion began after Georgian forces moved to regain control of the region that broke away along with rebel Abkhazia in the 1990s. Russia backs the separatists in both provinces and has its own peacekeeping forces in the region.
Russia’s 58th army with 150 Russian tanks, armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles have entered South Ossetia,” President Saakashvili of Georgia told reporters in Tbilisi. “This is a clear intrusion on another country’s territory. We have Russian tanks on our territory, jets on our territory in broad daylight.”
Georgia downed to Russian jet fighters.