Eurasia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States told Russia on Friday to withdraw its forces from U.S. ally Georgia and stop its air attacks on the tiny Caucasus state following fighting in the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia will withdraw 1,000 soldiers from Iraq to help fight off Russian forces in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, the head of Georgia’s Security Council, Kakha Lomaia, said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will declare martial law in a few hours time, the secretary of Georgia’s Security Council said early on Saturday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – About 140 buses carrying refugees from Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia arrived in the adjacent Russian region of North Ossetia on Friday, Interfax news agency reported.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the United States to persuade Georgia to halt what Moscow called its “aggression” against South Ossetia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Russian bombing killed about 30 Georgians but Georgia’s forces now control the rebel South Ossetian capital and the surrounding area, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a live television address on Friday.

(Reuters) – Russian armored vehicles have entered the northern edges of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, the separatists’ press service reported on its website on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian soldiers now in the South Ossetian capital say their artillery has begun firing at Georgian forces – the first confirmed engagement between the two countries’ troops, Russian agencies reported.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – About 1,400 people have died as a result of “Georgian aggression” against South Ossetia, the president of the Georgian breakaway region was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying on Friday.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The United States, NATO and the European Union called for an immediate end to fighting in Georgia’s South Ossetia region and called for talks between the sides.