Story from the Georgian side - yet tobe hear more from Russia

A Georgian soldier walked away from an explosion site in the village of Mereti. Villagers said an unidentified airplane dropped bombs on the outskirts of Mereti, destroying two cars. They said some residents were wounded.

Georgian troops riding in armored personnel carriers during the conflict with South Ossetian troops near the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia declared that "war has started" and President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia accused Russia of a "well-planned invasion," saying he had mobilized Georgia's military reserves.

Georgian troops riding in armored personnel carriers during the conflict with South Ossetian troops near the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali. Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia declared that "war has started" and President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia accused Russia of a "well-planned invasion," saying he had mobilized Georgia's military reserves.

A Russian checkpoint on the way to Tskhinvali was not functioning as usual. The Russian Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements to protect its peacekeepers already on the ground there.

A truck with Georgian soldiers passed through a Georgian village near the front line. Georgian forces said Friday that they had won control of the capital of the rebel enclave, South Ossetia, but Russian peacekeepers in the city said they had not seen Georgian troops in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.

A wounded Georgian soldier is brought to an army hospital in Gori. Separatist leaders in Tskhinvali said casualties were in the hundreds, though the claim was impossible to verify.

A woman related to a soldier cried after he was taken to the army hospital in Gori. South Ossetia gained de facto independence from Georgia in the late 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.


A Georgian soldier whose battalion just returned from the front line is greeted by a family member. Analysts said that Georgia could be trying to seize an opportune moment with world leaders focused on the start of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing this week to reclaim the territory.