Georgian Forces Bomb Rebel-Held Resort City in Breakaway Region
Georgian forces bombed a seaside resort in the breakaway Abkhazia region Saturday, under orders from acting President Eduard A. Shevardnadze to recapture the town from rebels who seized it Friday.
Georgia’s ruling State Council’s press service said in the capital, Tbilisi, that combat aircraft and helicopters had been used to attack the town of Gagra. The number of victims was not immediately known.
Shevardnadze told Abkhazian television Friday that Tbilisi would soon dispatch 40,000 servicemen to quell unrest in the region, which before the Friday violence around Gagra had already cost some 200 lives.
“Total mobilization will be carried out, if needed,” local journalists quoted him as saying.
Georgian troops were sent to Abkhazia in August after the local Parliament demanded more autonomy for the region.
The new outbreak of fighting effectively wrecked a Russian-mediated cease-fire that went into force last month, the latest attempt to end the six-week conflict.
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