Georgia Pulls Troops From South Ossetia After Losses

Georgia is withdrawing its troops from the separatist region of South Ossetia after four days of fighting with Russian and Ossetian forces as casualties rise ``into the hundreds,'' a government official said.

``Casualties are very heavy in many places,'' Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said by telephone from the capital Tbilisi. ``We are withdrawing from South Ossetia.''

A ``temporary'' cease-fire has been declared in the region, to which the Russians have agreed, Utiashvili said. Russia's Foreign Ministry ``has no such information,'' a spokesman said on condition of anonymity, citing ministry rules. ``I can neither confirm nor deny it.''

Heavy fighting began on Aug. 7 in South Ossetia, which broke from Georgia in a war in the early 1990s. Russia sent troops and tanks into the disputed region the next day in what it said was a response to Georgia's assault on Russian citizens and peacekeeping forces. Most residents of South Ossetia hold Russian passports. Georgia said Russian warplanes bombed targets in the country in an offensive President Mikheil Saakashvili called a ``well-planned invasion.''

Second Front

A second front has opened in the four-day-old conflict as eight Russian warships docked in a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, Kakha Lomaia, head of Georgia's Security Council, said by telephone. ``They've been bombing Upper Abkhazia,'' he said. ``They hit two villages overnight'' in addition to the border town of Zugdidi, he said. Upper Abkhazia is a Georgian- controlled area within Abkhazia, which also broke away from the Black Sea country in a war in the early 1990s.

Russia's Defense Ministry and a spokesman for the Ground Troops could not immediately be reached for comment. Kristian Bzhania, a spokesman for Abkhaz President Sergei Bagapsh, said Russia increased its naval presence off Abkhazia at the request of the regional leadership after four Georgian warships tried to enter its territorial waters, the Interfax news service reported.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is ``alarmed'' by the spread of the conflict to Abkhazia, the UN said.

`Economic Blockade'

In signs of an economic blockade, Russian warships prevented a Ukrainian ship carrying grain and an unidentified oil tanker from docking in the Georgian port of Poti, Economic Development Minister Eka Sharashidze said by telephone. Azerbaijan stopped sending oil to Georgian ports for export because of the clashes, AFP reported, citing Rovnag Abdullayev, head of SOCAR, the country's state oil company.

``This is suffocation of the country,'' Lomaia said. ``An economic blockade like this is very close to genocide.''

Georgia is a key link in a U.S.-backed ``southern energy corridor'' that connects the Caspian Sea region with world markets, bypassing Russia. The BP Plc-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline to Turkey runs about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tskhinvali.