By KUNA,
Moscow : Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Saturday start of what he termed “the operation for enforcement of peace” in South Ossetia and his military forces on the ground advanced into the heart of the war-ravaged region.
Medvedev, in remarks broadcast by the Russian Television, said the Russian regular forces “had begun coercing the Georgian troops to tilt in favor of peace,” noting that the wide-scale Russian operation in the region was aimed at protecting civilians.
On the field, heavily armored Russian forces, equipped with tanks, rumbled across South Ossetia reaching a camp for the Russian peace-keepers in the heart of South Ossetia, that was attacked by the Georgians on Friday, when they launched an all-out war on the region.
Russia has been enraged with the Georgian offensive that followed recurring tit-for-tat border skirmishes between the Ossetians and the Georgians. At least 12 Russian regulars were killed and 150 others were wounded in the yesterday offensive.
Sources in South Ossetia said more than 1,400 people have been killed since the Georgians launched the air-ground attack 48 hours ago.
Georgian officials, meanwhile, expressed desire to pull all or part of a 2, 000-strong Georgian military force deployed in Iraq “as soon as possible.” Russia is a staunch supporter of the southern region and Georgia is seen by Moscow as a close ally to the West.
Roots of the conflict for the control of Ossetia date back to the early 90s when the Soviet Empire disintegrated resulting in establishment of a series of independent countries and republics around the main Russian land — of natives of diverse ethnticies, languages and national aspirations.
Russia, following the Soviet era, had crushed an armed bid for independence in one of these republics, Chechnya.