GORI, GEORGIA — Russia dismissed signs of a Georgian military retreat and rejected calls for a cease-fire Sunday, pursuing a raging conflict with the former Soviet republic.
The international community scrambled to bring an end to the expanding conflict, which broke out late last week after Georgian troops apparently attempted to retake the pro-Russian breakaway republic of South Ossetia in a battle that left hundreds dead and Georgia, a strategic partner of the West, vulnerable.
On Sunday, Russia unleashed airstrikes and artillery barrages on Georgian positions in South Ossetia as well as near Abkhazia, another breakaway republic, and in cities of the staunchly pro-U.S. nation, hitting sites in the capital, Tbilisi, and the garrison town of Gori. Russia also began what appeared to be a naval offensive along Georgia's Black Sea coast.
Early today, Russian planes bombed a military base and radar installation near Tbilisi, Georgia's Interior Ministry told Reuters news service.
Despite having taken control of Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, and facing widespread calls for peace, Russia showed little sign of easing its drive to punish Georgia and humiliate President Mikheil Saakashvili, 40, who is despised by Moscow's leadership.
"We are not crazy," Saakashvili said in an interview with CNN, asserting that troops from his small military had withdrawn from the South Ossetian capital in the face of attacks by Russia's vastly larger armed forces. "We have no interest whatsoever in pursuing hostilities."
Moscow was far from satisfied. Russia officials accused Georgia of simply regrouping its forces in preparation for a counterattack. Early today dozens of Georgian tanks and vehicles carrying troops passed through Gori, heading north toward South Ossetia.
Authorities ordered lights out throughout the central Georgian city, the site of a major military base that Russian warplanes had bombed. Georgian media said those remaining in Gori were scurrying into basements on hearing the Russian planes. Women and children were evacuated from the city of 50,000, many to Tbilisi, where ambulances could be heard all night and day ferrying the wounded to major hospitals.
Witnesses said Georgian military forces had suffered heavy casualties, though no reliable estimates of a death toll in the conflict were available. At the town of Khashuri, about 60 miles from Tbilisi, police had set up checkpoints and choked off all traffic heading toward the capital.
