Explosions rocked the strategic town of Gori on Wednesday, posing a fresh threat to the fragile ceasefire between Russia and Georgia.
A week after the conflict erupted, Russia stepped up diplomatic warnings to the West in response to a strong US message of support for Georgia, with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed to Tbilisi.
Explosions were heard and smoke was seen around Gori where Russian and Georgian forces are concentrated. A reporter said it appeared to be shelling. Moments earlier, a Russian soldier had demanded journalists leave and fired shots in the air.
Under a French-brokered ceasefire agreed on Tuesday, Russian and Georgian forces were to return to positions they had before Georgia launched its offensive against breakaway South Ossetia.
But a Georgian foreign ministry spokeswoman said Russia has raised its troop numbers in Gori and returned to the Georgian port of Poti.
“Despite the previously reached agreement, Russians are deploying additional forces in Gori and fortifying the city. At the same time, Russian armed forces have returned to Poti,” spokeswoman Nato Chikovani said.
There had earlier been conflicting reports on whether Russian troops were leaving Gori, which is on the main road from South Ossetia to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
A reporter saw Georgian armored personnel carriers waiting by a roadside outside the town.
The presence of Russian tanks in Gori had heightened fears that Russia planned to advance even deeper into Georgian territory.
A senior Russian military official, General Vyacheslav Borissov, said it would take two days before the entire contingent of Russian troops left Gori and Georgian troops took full control. The two sides have exchanged accusations that the other is breaching the truce.
Hundreds of South Ossetian rebels with some Russian army personnel looted homes in villages near Gori on Wednesday.
Human Rights Watch said its researchers in South Ossetia had “witnessed terrifying scenes of destruction in four villages that used to be populated exclusively by ethnic Georgians.”
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev halted Moscow’s offensive on Tuesday and French President Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated a ceasefire with Medvedev and Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov “strongly rejected insinuations of Russia’s ‘non-observance’ of the principles of resolving” the conflict in a telephone conversation with his US counterpart Rice on Wednesday, Russia’s foreign ministry said.
Lavrov also launched a bitter attack on Washington, saying it had to choose between a “relatively virtual” relationship with Tbilisi and a “partnership [with Russia] on questions that require collective action.”
The UN estimates some 100,000 people have been forced from their homes.
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