Rebels Increase Hold on Coastal Georgia Region
Separatists took control Thursday of nearly all of the Abkhazia region of Georgia.
The loss is a humiliating defeat for Georgian leader Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who has said Abkhazia’s fall could inflame secessionist movements across the Caucasus region.
Abkhazian forces, which on Monday drove government troops from the regional capital of Sukhumi, marched southward along the Black Sea coast Thursday into Ochamchira and Gali, Georgian officials said.
The tiny Gali district was the last government stronghold in Abkhazia.
Sukhumi’s airport, south of the capital, was abandoned Wednesday night by thousands of government soldiers and armed civilian volunteers who fled into the nearby mountains and toward Ochamchira.
The whereabouts of Georgian Defense Minister Georgy Karkarashvili, who stayed with the airport defenders, was unknown Thursday.
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